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OLD  NEW  ENGLAND  CHURCHES 
AND  THEIR  CHILDREN 


BOOKS  BY  MRS.  DOLORES  BACON 


CRUMBS  AND  HIS  TIMES 

OLD  NEW  ENGLAND  CHURCHES  AND  THEIR  CHILDREN, 

with  many  illustrations  from  photographs 

SONGS  EVERY  CHILD  SHOULD  KNOW,  edited  by  Dolores 
Bacon.    Decorated  by  B.  Ostertag 

A  KING'S  DIVINITY 

THE  DIARY  OF  A  MUSICIAN,  edited  by  Dolores  Bacon, 
with  illustrations  by  H.  Latimer  Brown  and  decorations 
by  Charles  Edward  Hooper 


Uhlidren 


Photograph  by  E.  E.  Soderhollt, 
West  GouldsboTo 
SPIRE  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON 
Here  hung  the  bell  which  summoned  the  people  to  rebellion  against 
Great  Britain 


v:oT8oa  . 


oio  aST  -io  aaiife; 


Old 

New  England  Churches 

And  Their  Children 


By 

DOLORES  BACON 

Author  of   "  The  Diary  of  a  Musician," 
**  Crumbs  and  His  Times,"  etc. 


Thirty-three  illitstratums  in  photogravure 
and  half-tone,  from  photographs 


NEW  YORK 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

1906 


^^ 


^^ 


o 


■^ 


Copyright,  1906,  by 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

Published,  November,  1906 

All  rights  reserved^ 

including  that  of  translation  into  foreign  languages 

including  the  Scandinavian 


EDITOR'S  NOTE 

In  telling  the  story  of  New  England  Churches, 
I  have  been  greatly  assisted  by  the  kind  cooper- 
ation of  many  New  England  people :  public-spirited 
citizens  and  pastors  of  churches ;  and  by  reference  to 
pamphlets,  books  of  general  history,  ecclesiastical 
histories,  town  records,  old  sermons,  and  the  like. 

Especial  thanks  are  due  the  trustees,  librarians 
and  to  the  least  of  the  staff  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library.  I  wish  eagerly  to  acknowledge  the  hos- 
pitality of  the  trustees  and  here  to  thank  the 
librarians  for  their  efficient  help  in  placing  well 
classified  and  helpful  material  in  my  hands.  I 
wish  to  thank  the  attendants  for  their  cheerful 
comings  and  goings,  their  f etchings  and  carryings 
in  the  interest  of  this  work,  and  to  express  the 
pleasure  I  have  felt  in  observing  how  indiscrimin- 
ately willing  they  are  to  serve  all  those  who  work 
within  that  rare  library's  gates. 

Personal  acknowledgments  are  due  the  Rever- 
ends Edwin  P.  Parker,  Franklin  Ware  Davis, 
William  L.  Walsh,  Newman  Smyth,  D.  D.,  Henry 
Lincoln  Bailey,  Alfred  Manchester,  T.  T.  Hunger, 


I5i25413 


vi  EDITOR'S    NOTE 

Henry  M.  King,  Eugene  R.  Shippen,  Henry  E. 
Hovey,  W.W.  Doman;  to  J.  J.  Loud,  A.  S.  Forbes, 
Malcolm  E.  Robb,  Dr.  Parker,  John K. Lord, Ph.D., 
Wm.  D.  T.  Trefry,  Frederick  S.  Piper,  M.D.,  Julius 
H.  Tuttle,  and  to  Prof.  W.  Walker. 

The  authors  of  the  several  histories  used  for  ref- 
erence are  almost  without  exception  mentioned  in 
the  text  of  New  England  Churches,  and  if  any 
kindness  remains  unacknowledged  or  the  identifi- 
cation of  any  authority  has  been  left  undefined  it 
is  due  to  inadvertence  and  not  to  intention. 

Dolores  Bacon. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Introduction.     Old  New  England  Chur- 
ches, xix 

Chapter  I.    First  Church,  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Organisation — No  Wedding  or  Funeral  Ceremonies — 
Spiritual  Symbolism — John  Eliot,  Apostle  to  the 
Indians — Roger  Williams — John  Cotton — Burning 
Questions — Influence  of  Puritanism — Antinomianism 
and  Romanism 3 

Chapter  II.     Old  North  Church,  Boston, 
Massachusetts. 

The  Outcome  of  a  King-Killing — Increase  and  Cotton 
Mather — The  Paul  Revere  Lights — Dr.  Lathrop — Em- 
erson .        , 27 

Chapter  III.    King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

a  Missionary  Enterprise — Andros — Ratcliffe — Caner, 
the  Robber — Ordination  Refused — Unitarianism  the 
Result — Washington  at  a  Concert — Episcopal  Emi- 
grants— Sabbath  Observance — Puritan  Peculiarities 
— Royal  Gifts — Loyalists — A  Romance        ...         49 

Chapter  IV.     Old  South  Church,  Boston, 

Massachusetts. 

Church  and  State  Separate — Old  South  the  Beginning 
of  Civic  Development — The  Town  Meeting— The 
Church  as  a  Riding  School  for  the  British— The  Sewalls 
—Famous  Men  in  the  Pulpit  and  in  Politics— Peace 
Between  Old  South  and  King's  Chapel         .        .        .         75 


viii  CONTENTS— Continued 

PAOB 

Chapter  V.     Concord  Church,  Concord, 
Massachusetts. 

The  Spreading  Oak — Hardships — Conversion  of  the 
Indians — Church  Discipline  —  Grievances  —  Concord 
Fighters — The  Preacher  Line  of  Emersons         .        .  93 

Chapter  VI.      Quincy    Church,    Quincy, 
Massachusetts. 

The  Hot-Bed  of  Antinomianism — A  Constable  Bell- 
Ringer — Long  Prayers — The  Dog  Difficulty — Puritan 
Excesses — The  Slave  Trade — Taste  in  Decoration — 
The  Old  First  Church — A  Generous  Pastor — Opposi- 
tion to  Catholics 109 

Chapter  VII.    Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham, 
Massachusetts. 

Born  with  a  Bell—'  'The  Old  Man's  Calendar  "—Judge 
Se wall's  Diary — Marriage  Inspires  a  Funeral  "Eol- 
ogy" — The  Stockade  Comes  Down — Laughter  and 
Salvation — Betty  Sewall's  Soul — Applauding  to  keep 
Warm — The  Stricken  Strikes  Back — Alphabetical 
Punishment 123 

Chapter  VIII.    First  Church,  Lexington, 

Massachusetts. 

The  "Shot  that  Rang" — "Settees"  for  the  Ladies — 
John  Hancock  and  the  Deacons — Where  Hancock 
cut  the  Cheese — The  Bible  and  the  Church — Seating 
the  Congregation 139 

Chapter  IX.    First  Church,  Dedham,  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

The  "Hows"  is  "Daubed  and  Whitened  Over  Work- 
manlike"—  Tolerance  in  Dedham  —  Difficult  to 
Please — President  of  Dartmouth  College  not  good 
enough — Baptism  of  Children — Seating  the  Congrega- 
tion— The  Widows  who  kept  the  Meeting  House — 
The  Dog-whipper — Full  of  Galleries — Dedham  be- 
comes Vain 157 


CONTENTS— Co«//««^^  ix 

PAGE 

Chapter  X.     Church  of  the  Pilgrimage, 
Plymouth,  Massachusetts. 

First  Thanksgiving — Coming  of  Roger  Williams — 
Plymouth's  Tolerance — The  Doctor  and  the  Gov- 
ernor— Legacy  to  Plymouth  Meeting  House — The  First 
Sabbath  School — Rum  and  the  Meeting  House — A 
Soldier's  Chilblains        .         .         .         .         .         .  175 

Chapter  XI.     First  Church,  Dorchester, 

Massachusetts. 

The  Arrival  of  the  Royal  Charter — Starvation — Judge 
Sewall's  Diary — How  the  Reverend  Mr.  Maverick 
Blew  up — Dorchester  Poetry — How  Dorchester  Moved 
— Lobbying  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers — Retribution 
— William  Poole's  Epitaph — "Raring  of  the  Meeting 
Hows"  ........  191 

Chapter  XII.    Brookfield  Church,  Brook- 
field,  Massachusetts. 

Established  by  the  General  Court — Destroyed  by  Fire 

— A  Split  in  the  Church — An  Error  in  History         ,  213 

Chapter   XIII.      St.    Michael's    Church, 
Marblehead,    Massachusetts. 

a  Church  of  England  Mission — Taxation  Troubles — 
Differences  with  Puritans — A  Tory  Rector — Closed 
and  Re-opened       .......  223 

Chapter    XIV.       First     Congregational 
Church,  Salem,  Massachusetts. 

Impressment  into  God's  Service — Delinquents  Pun- 
ished— The  Dog-whipper — Women  go  Veiled — Witch- 
craft— Good  Comes  out  of  Salem — Hugh  Peters 's 
Death       .....  ...  239 


X  CONTENTS— Con/ma^^ 

PAGS 

Chapter  XV.    Longmeadow  Church,  Long- 
meadow,  Massachusetts. 

Origin  of  the  Name — The  Romantic  Story  of  Stephen 
Williams — The  Botirbon  Prince — Obnoxious  Prayers 
for  the  King — Children's  Day       .         .         .         .  257 

Chapter  XVI.     First   Church,    Newport, 
Rhode    Island. 

a  Gossiping  Convention — Dr.  Channing — An  Out- 
cast Community — Woven  for  Quakers — Roger  Wil- 
liams— Slavery        .         .         .         .         .         .         .  265 

Chapter  XVII.     First     Baptist    Church, 
Providence,   Rhode  Island. 

Roger  Williams's  Land — Worship  in  Open  Air — Given 
by  Pardon  Tillinghast — He  Refuses  Salary — Preacher 
a  Jack-of-all-trades — Preachers  as  Street  Cleaners — 
Quakers  Find  Refuge — First  Church  and  the  College — 
Quick  Work — The  Meeting  House  and  the  Lottery 
— Henry  Packard's  Gift — The  Family  Procession — ■ 
Slavery  Repudiated — Libert^,  Egalitd,  Fraternity       .       277 

Chapter  XVIII.     Center     Church,     New 
Haven,  Connecticut. 

"One  Came  Preaching  in  the  Wilderness" — The 
Founders — The  First  Meeting  House — The  Seating 
of  the  Congregation — The  First  Church — Buying 
a  Bell — Yale  in  Embryo — Regicides  Find  Protection 
— The  Crypt — The  Graveyard       .         .         .         .  291 

Chapter  XIX.     United      Church,      New 
Haven,  Connecticut. 

Dr.  Munger's  Relations  with  the  Church — ^The  New- 
Society — ^The  First  Recognition  in  the  Colony  of  Inde- 


CONTENTS— Continued  x\ 

PAGB 

pendent  Citizenship— The  Blue  Meeting  House- 
esthetic  Objections  on  the  Part  of  First  Church— 
The  New  Edifice  Under  Guard— Jonathan  Edwards- 
United  Church  Pays  into  Treasury  of  First  Society- 
First  Society  Tries  to  Cheat  New  Society  of  its  Share 
in  Properties — Division  of  Properties — Peace      .         .      315 

Chapter  XX.     First  Church,   Hartford, 
Connecticut. 

Rev.  Elnathan  Whitman  and  Abigail  Stanley — The 
Romance  of  Elizabeth  Whitman — Second  Church 
Impoverishes  the  Whitmans        .        .        .        .  .       327 

Chapter  XXI .    First  Church  (' '  Old  Jerusa- 
lem"), Portland,   Maine. 

In  the  Days  of  Falmouth — The  Living  Room  of  Fal- 
mouth— Garrisoning  the  Preacher — The  Bellframe  Be- 
comes a  Scarecrow — Piecing  out  the  Meeting  House — 
When  Pierced  by  British  Shells — State  Constitution 
made  in  the  Meeting  House — Ordination  Behaviour — 
Parti-colovurs  in  the  Pulpit — When  "Old  Jerusalem" 
Struck       .  . 343 

Chapter  XXII.  Old  North  Church,  Ports- 
mouth, New  Hampshire. 

a  Cage  for  the  Congregation — Visiting  Christians 
Regenerate  Portsmouth — The  Governor  Ruins 
Moodey — Moodey  in  Jail — Moodey  Appeals  to  Cler- 
gjrmen  for  Portsmouth — Clock  and  Bell — The  Coming 
of  Buckminster 355 

Chapter  XXIII.     Old  St.  John's  Church, 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

The  Reverend  Arthur  Browne — Marriage  of  Governor 
Wentworth    and    Martha    Hilton — Governor    Went- 


3tii  CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGB 

worth's  Birthday  Party — The  Bread  of  Coionel  Theo- 
dore Atkinson — Funeral  Baked-meats  make  Wedding 
Feast — Governor  Wentworth's  MiUinery  Bill — Dis- 
pensation of  the  "Dole" — St.  John's  Baptismal  Font 
— Gift  of  the  Misses  Mason — Courtship  of  Rousselet 
and  Miss  Catherine  Moflfatt — Washington's  Visit — 
His  Diary — What  Washington  Wore — Queen  Caro- 
line's Gift — George  Washington  and  Queen  Caroline's 
Chair — Trinity's  Contribution — Paul  Revere  Repairs 
the  Bell — Paul  Revere's  Successors  Repair  the  Bell — 
The  Wentworth  Inscription — The  Old  Brattle  Organ 
— Burying  Ground  of  St.  John's 369 

Chapter  XXIV.      First   Church,   Dover, 
New  Hampshire. 

Importing  their  Preachers — ' '  As  a  Light  Upon  a  Hill ' ' 
— Arbitration  in  Dover — Whipped  at  the  Cart's 
Tail — Dover's  Historian — The  Pledge — Gun  and 
Bible  Regulate  Discords  in  the  Meeting  House        .       381 

Chapter  XXV.     First  Church,  Concord, 

New  Hampshire. 

Service  in  Camp — The  Church-fort — The  Frontier 
Church — The  Proprietors  of  the  Meeting  House — 
Peculiar  Conditions  of  Colonisation  in  Concord — 
The  Preacher's  Diary  —  The  Ballusters — The  Stair 
Carpet — The  Truculent  Weathercock — The  Compass 
on  the  Ceiling — The  Choir  Screened — Military  Orders 
issued  from  the  Meeting  House — The  Butter  which 
Bought  the  Horse  Block — Famous  Assemblies  in  the 
Meeting  House — Compromise  on  the  Stove — Slavery 
in  New  England — Miles    Standish  and  his   Soldiers       395 

Chapter  XXVI.     Church  op  Christ,  Han- 
over, New  Hampshire. 

Church  and  College  Twins — The  "Grafton  Presby- 
tery"— The  Church  is  Housed  by  the  College— The 
College   Demands   a  Church — The   Church   and   the 


CONTENTS— Continued  xiii 

PAGB 

College  Quarrel — Peace  Established — Noted  Men 
who  have  Worshipped  in  the  Meeting  House — Olan- 
nishness  keeps  the  Church  United — College  and  Church 
Quarrel  again — Legislation  Appealed  to — Daniel 
Webster,  Rufus  Choate,  Edward  Everett — Church 
Quarrel  Carried  to  Washington — Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall's Decision 407 

Chapter  XXVII.     Church  of  Christ,  Ben- 
nington, Vermont. 

Robust  Christianity — Vermont  gets  ready — War  and 
Worship — Bennington  an  Accident — Taxation  to 
Bviild — Little  Ballusters  and  Little  Fingers — Ethan 
Allen  goes  to  Meeting  House — The  Hessians  Dine — 
They  go  to  Church — Legislation  in  the  Meeting 
House — "Hill"  Property  and  the  Oongregationalist — 
The  Preacher  a  Beggar  —  Fenelon  and  the  New  En- 
.  gland  Preacher — Bennington  Discusses  Slavery — The 
Carpenter  Preacher — Deweys  as  Commanders  Before 
they   are  Admirals — ^Jennings 423 

Chapter  XXVIII.     First   Church,    New- 
bury, Vermont. 

Tithing  Man — Constabulary — The  Preacher  Becomes 
"Hog  Constable" — Sworn  in  at  Midnight — People 
Dissatisfied — Church,  Courthouse,  and  Gaol — Meeting 
House  and  Legislature — The  Men  Expose  the  Women 
— The  Church  Folk  Become  Desperate — Rebuilding 
for  Fifteen  Dollars — Thanksgiving  Postponed — Wait- 
ing for  Molasses — Changing  their  Stockings  at  Wells 
River 437 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Spire  of  the  Old  South  Church,   Boston, 

Massachusetts    .  .  .  Frontispiece 

PACING  PAGB 

Old  Church,  Concord,  Massachusetts   .  .         4 

The  Old  North,  or  Second  Church,  Boston, 

Massachusetts    .... 
Interior  of  Second  Church,  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts    ..... 
Bust  of  Emerson  which  is  in  the  Second 

Church       ..... 
The   Minister's   Window,    Second   Church, 

Boston,  Massachusetts 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Massachusetts 
Detail  of  Pulpit,   King's  Chapel,   Boston, 

Massachusetts    .... 
Detail  of  King's  Chapel 
In  the  Gallery  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston, 

Massachusetts     .... 
A  Portion  of  Carving  from  the  Organ,  Kings 

Chapel,  Boston,  Massachusetts 
Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


33 

35 
42 

44 
50 

62 
66 

69 

72 
86 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS-Co«//««^rf 


Old  Church :  ' '  Church  of  Statesmen, ' '  Quincy , 
Massachusetts    .... 

The  "Old  Slip"  Meeting  House,  Hingham, 
Massachusetts     .... 

First    Parish    Chiirch,    Lexington,   Massa- 
chusetts    ..... 

First  Church,  Dedham,  Massachusetts 

Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mas- 
sachusetts. .... 

Meeting    House    Hall,     Dorchester,    Mas- 
sachusetts. .... 

First    Parish    Church:     Old    North    East 
Church,  Brookfield,  Massachusetts 

St.  Michael's,  Marblehead,  Massachusetts 

First  Church  of  Christ,  Longmeadow,  Mas- 
sachusetts. .... 

Spire  of  the  Old  North,  or  Christ  Church, 
Boston,  Massachusetts 

Spire  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Prov- 
idence, Rhode  Island  . 

First  Baptist  Church,  Showing  Parsonage 

Interior   of   First   Baptist   Church,    Prov- 
idence, Rhode  Island  . 

Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


PACING  PAGE 


224 
258 
277 

277 

280 

286 

292 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS-c*«/;««^^ 


XVII 


Centre  Church's  Communion  Service  given 
by  Queen  Anne  .... 

Crypt:  Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Connec- 
ticut.        ,  .  ... 

Memorial   Window,    Centre   Church,    New 

Haven,  Connecticut    . 
United  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 
Old     North     Church,     Portsmouth,     New 

Hampshire  .... 

Old  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  New 

Hampshire  .... 

First  Congregational  Church,  Dover,  New 

Hampshire  .... 

First  Church,  Newbury,  Vermont 


FACING  PAGB 


305 

316 
364 
372 

382 
438 


INTRODUCTION 

"Even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her 
wings  "  did  the  church  of  New  England  hover  those 
who  came  out  of  an  old  civilisation  into  a  new 
world. 

Perhaps  no  story  tells  of  such  heroic  splendour 
as  does  the  story  of  that  chosen  people.  The 
ages  have  given  us  tales  of  Spartan  greatness,  of 
glittering  heroism,  of  splendid  warfare,  of  chivalry, 
but  the  heroes  of  such  derring-do  found  immediate 
compensation,  and  their  courage  had  its  almost 
instant  reward. 

The  soldier  fights  his  battles  with  the  certainty 
of  self-approval  and  the  stimulation  of  applause 
from  his  comrades  or  a  waiting  world;  the  ad- 
venturer has  ever  felt  the  inspiration  of  an  eager 
audience,  or  has  known  the  genius-ecstasy  of  new 
discovery.  But  the  Puritan  stood  for  none  of 
these  things.  God  and  His  Heaven  were  the 
Puritan's  obsessions,  and  for  these  he  was  trans- 
planted to  a  strange  soil  which  must  have  seemed 
barren  indeed,  however  rich  it  was  in  promise^ 
since  it  lacked  the  guide-posts  of  home.  . 

xix 


XX  Old  New  England  Churches 

In  1620,  a  little  company  of  men  composing  the 
immigrant  church  halted  to  worship  God  before 
fearsomely  setting  forth  to  conquer  the  unknown; 
and  thus  was  gathered  the  first  Protestant  Church 
on  New  World  soil.  These  Pilgrims  had  exiled 
themselves  in  a  heroic  spirit.  For  fear  rather 
than  for  love  of  God,  most  of  them  had  left  home 
without  a  fortune,  and  they  had  not  come  hither 
to  seek  one.  There  were  to  be  wars,  but  no 
pageantry.  There  was  to  be  heroism,  but  no 
immediate  applause.  The  applause  was  to  come 
many  generations  later.  They  could  not  know  that 
when  it  came  it  would  ring  so  loud  as  to  echo 
through  all  the  ages  that  were  to  follow.  The 
conditions  they  endured  were  a  reversion  to  that  of 
an  elemental  civilisation. 

The  adventurers  in  God  seem  to  have  exer- 
cised no  intellectual  perspective,  and  thus  to  have 
lived  by  a  reasonable  and  legitimate  optimism. 
They  had  to  guide  them  only  their  persistent 
superstition  and  a  miraculous  shrewdness,  bom 
of  a  common  desire  to  survive.  But  that  common 
desire  had  its  impulse  in  an  extraordinary  and 
exceptional  motive — a  rarefied  ascetic  mind. 
As  others  had  fought  for  physical  life,  so  these 
adventurers  fought   perversely  for  spiritual  life, 


Introduction  xxi 

trying  to  preserve  their  bodies  only  for  the 
practise  of  austerities  in  the  name  of  God.  With 
no  intellectuality  common  to  the  company,  these 
men  peered  into  the  forest,  then  stepped  forth,  doubt- 
less with  physical  shrinking,  but  with  leonine 
determination  to  die  for  God  and  their  right. 

They  established,  promoted,  and  defended  God 
and  His  word  with  all  the  cunning  of  obstinate 
and  cautious  tacticians.  They  did  not  at  first 
establish  their  citadel  upon  a  hill,  but  sought  the 
lowlands.  All  civil  laws  were  to  be  promulgated 
with  a  view  to  spiritual  opportunity.  New  World 
homes  were  compulsorily  set  up  within  a  half- 
mile  of  New  England  meeting  houses;  thus  the 
Church  became  the  material  as  well  as  the  spiritual 
nucleus  of  all  things.  Crowding  close  up  around 
it  for  protection  was  the  little  handful  of  intrepid 
citizens,  who  were  strong  mainly  in  spirit.  They 
lived  in  the  shadow  of  a  fort-like  structure  which 
was  the  original  house  of  God  on  this  soil.  In 
the  second  stage  of  New  World  development 
about  the  church  structure  stood  the  stocks,  the 
jail,  and  the  gallows.  This  is  a  proper  order  of 
enumeration,  for  in  those  early  hours  of  western 
history,  civil  as  well  as  spiritual  law  and  the 
Christian  religion  were  maintained  by  fear. 


xxii  Old  New  England  Churches 

These  instruments  of  worldly  development  stood 
not  incongruously  near  to  the  spiritual  Correctional 
— the  Church  of  the  Puritan.  By  law,  every 
town  in  the  colony  was  compelled  to  build  its 
meeting  house ;  when  that  legal  demand  was  not 
fulfilled,  the  town  fathers  forthwith  met  the 
requirements  and  took  the  cost  from  the  town 
revenue.  Those  first  primitive  structures,  squares 
of  rough-hewn  logs,  weather-proofed  with  clay, 
thatched  with  straw,  and  having  none  but  earthen 
floors — those  forbidding,  desolate  places — be- 
came the  anchors,  the  beacons,  the  saviours  of 
the  New  World.  Those  unconsecrated  cabins 
became  at  once  the  granaries,  the  storehouses, 
the  halls  of  justice,  the  halls  of  record,  the  forts, 
and  the  places  in  which  to  worship  God.  When 
the  rigours  of  winter  menaced  the  destruction 
of  one  of  civilisation's  best  agents,  the  horse, 
the  churches  situated  in  the  valleys  became 
stables  as  well.  All  living  things  might  find 
protection  under  their  roofs,  if  need  be;  and  a 
whole  world  rushed  there  upon  alarum. 

As  civilisation  expanded  and  neighbouring  pas- 
turage became  inadequate,  forests  near  the  settle- 
ments being  gradually  hewn  down  and  consumed, 
demands  were  made  for  new  conditions  and  for 


Introdtiction  xxiii 

a  revision  for  those  legal  requirements  which 
gathered  congregations  under  the  shadow  of  a 
church. 

Then  came  another  period  in  the  history  of  the 
meeting  house.  It  was  set  "  as  a  light  upon  a 
hill,"  where  it  became  a  sentinel  to  warn  the 
people  of  hostile  approach — "  a  landmark  whose 
high  bell- turret,  or  steeple,  that,  pointing  to  heaven, 
was  likewise  a  guide  upon  earth."  There  this 
sign  and  signal  of  the  stem  adventurer  stood 
through  bleak  winters,  through  pitiless,  beating 
suns  of  summer,  a  reminder  only  to  come  and  be 
saved.  It  was  unbeautiful,  imsympathetic,  unseem- 
ly in  theory;  in  practice  a  harsh  parent  who  dealt 
out  promises  of  hope  and  joy  with  niggard  hand, 
while  promises  of  punishments  were  given  freely; 
and  though  it  beckoned,  it  menaced  more.  It 
was  the  sign  of  preservation,  spiritual  preservation, 
but  of  naught  else.  It  did  not  smile  upon  well- 
doing, but  it  frowned  upon  failure  to  love  it. 

The  Puritan  did  not  come  here  to  establish 
religious  freedom.  He  came  to  practise  according 
to  his  own  conscience,  and  he  was  intolerant 
of  all  who  did  not  endorse  his  views  and  live  ac- 
cording to  his  creeds.  We  have  official  evidence 
of  this  in  the  records  of  the  New  Haven  colony: 


xxiv  Old  New  England  Churches 

"that  all  the  people  of  God  within  this  juris- 
diction, who  are  not  in  a  church  way,  being  ortho- 
dox in  judgment,  and  not  scandalous  in  life,  shall 
have  full  liberty  to  gather  themselves  into  a 
church  estate,  provided  they  do  it  in  a  Christian 
way,  with  due  observation  of  the  rules  of  Christ, 
revealed  in  His  Word;  provided  also,  that  this 
court  doth  not,  nor  hereafter  will,  approve  of 
any  such  company  of  persons,  as  shall  join  in  any 
pretended  way  of  church  fellowship,  unless  they 
shall  first,  in  due  season,  acquaint  both  the  magis- 
trates and  elders  of  the  churches  within  this  colony 
where  and  when  they  intend  to  join,  and  have  their 
approbation  therein.  Nor  shall  any  person,  being 
a  member  of  any  church  which  shall  be  gathered 
without  such  notice  given  and  approbation  had,  or 
who  is  not  a  member  of  some  church  in  New  England 
approved  by  the  magistrates  and  churches  of  this 
colony,  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  juris- 
diction.'' 

This  religion  was  distinct  from  all  other  re- 
ligions. Christian  or  pagan,  in  that  it  eliminated 
the  element  of  chivalry  from  its  performance, 
also  everything  spectacular,  and  it  was  desiccated 
imtil  there  remained  only  a  hard,  unresponsive 
self-sacrifice.  The  Catholic  Church  swore  "by 
our  Lady, "  the  rites  of  pagan  religions  com- 
mended themselves  to  the  hiiman  love  of  earthly 
glory  and  exhibition;  but  the  Puritan  swore  not 
at  all,  and  he  became  elated  only  over  his  chastise- 


Introduction  '  xxv 

ments.  One  of  two  deductions  must  be  drawn; 
either  the  Puritan  soul  was  impoverished  beyond 
the  sense  of  need,  or  it  was  opulent  beyond  the 
power  to  assimilate  further  riches.  It  was  ulti- 
mate either  way.  It  must  have  been,  else  it  could 
not  have  survived.  Whichever  it  was,  the  stem 
spirit  did  survive  to  establish  the  most  tremen- 
dous forces  in  civilisation — integrity,  endurance, 
a  reasonable  self-abnegation,  a  love  of  justice, 
an  intelligent  measure  of  gratitude,  a  generous 
exercise  of  power,  and  a  faith  that  "God's  in 
His  Heaven,  all's  right  with  the  world!" 

All  mental  action  of  that  date  was  creative 
in  its  character.  Resourcefulness  was  the  sign  of 
the  survivor,  therefore  a  sign  of  God.  Men  did 
not  exist  to  learn  of  history,  but  to  make  it. 
Save  for  a  few  chosen  leaders  they  were  unlettered, 
ignorant  of  all  save  courage. 

One  of  our  most  conscientious  chroniclers  tells 
us  that  they  had  "  'turritts'  and  'turretts'  and 
'turits'  and  'turyts'  and  'feriats'  and  'tyrryts' 
and  'toryttes'  and  'turiotts'  and  'chyrits.'  " 
However  that  may  have  been,  sure  it  is  that  they 
had  turrets,  and  brave  men  to  sentinel  them. 
They  had  "  juyces,  rayles,  and  nayles  and  bymes 
and  tymber  and  gaybels  and  pulpytes  and  three 


xxvi  Old  New  England  Churches 

payr  of  stayrs  "  in  their  meeting  house  but  their 
joists,  rails,  nails,  beams,  timber,  gables,  pulpits 
and  three  pair  of  stairs  were  very  properly  as- 
sembled to  the  eternal  cause  of  God  and  human 
survival.  The  Puritans  were  not  able  to  spell,  but 
they  were  able  to  create  a  nation.  They  were  not 
capable  of  subjective  happiness,  but  they  made  a 
fair  world  for  a  great  and  heroic  people.  They 
may  have  builded  better  than  they  were  able  to 
know  at  the  time,  but  they  builded  splendidly 
for  their  children's  children;  and  the  pulsing, 
vibrant  life  in  the  New  World  of  this  Twentieth 
Century  can  trace  back,  step  by  step,  the  inspiring 
result  to  its  cause.  Then  may  not  the  clear-eyed, 
warmth-loving  generation  of  to-day  believe  in 
the  opulence  rather  than  in  the  spiritual  sterility 
of  its  forebears? 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  remarkably  practical 
coordination  of  the  physical  and  psychical  natures 
in  the  Puritans.  While  building  their  monimients 
to  God  they  did  not  forget  their  own  fleshly  re- 
quirements, and  they  seem  to  have  been  as  in- 
temperate in  such  matters  as  they  were  in  their 
spiritual  exploits.  There  is  a  record  of  the  pro- 
vision of  "five  barrels  of  rum,  one  barrel  of  good 
brown  sugar,  one  box  of  fine  lemons,   and  two 


Introdiiction  xxvii 

loaves  of  sugar"  which  were  required  by  the 
workmen  in  the  process  of  constructing  one 
New  England  church.  These  meeting  houses, 
carrying  so  large  an  amount  of  responsibility, 
were  guarded  against  destruction  with  all  the 
ingenuity  of  the  pioneer  mind.  They  stood  in 
summer  without  shade,  all  trees  in  close  proximity 
being  destroyed  to  protect  the  buildmgs  from  fire. 
The  outside  walls  were  the  posting  places  of  the 
community.  To  the  church  were  brought  wolves' 
heads  to  be  nailed  to  the  wall.  This  was  the 
method  of  tally  and  of  computing  rewards  at  a 
time  when  the  capturer  of  a  living  wolf  was  paid 
fifteen  shillings  from  the  town  treasury,  and  the 
delivery  of  a  dead  wolf  was  worth  ten  shillings. 
These  blood-smeared  walls  with  their  postings 
of  common  interest,  and  with  their  grinning 
wolves'  heads,  must  have  presented  a  strange  ap- 
pearance of  barbarity,  of  a  crude,  formative  exis- 
tence. On  Sundays  the  men  came  rudely  ac- 
coutred to  protect  the  congregation  from  Indians 
or  wolves,  their  two  "greatest  inconveniences." 
There  is  a  rugged  magnificence  in  this  picture 
which  in  a  later  time  has  become  a  part 
of  a  spectacle  which  is  to  be  regarded  only 
synthetically.     It    is    impossible    to    regard     it 


xxviii  Old  New  England  Churches 

either  in  its  material  or  its  spiritual  aspect 
alone.  The  one  was  uselessly  forbidding;  the 
other  had  in  it  almost  nothing  that  charmed.  Yet 
we  cannot  look  upon  a  congregation  carrying 
a  "competent  number  of  peeces,  fixed  and  com- 
pleat  with  powder  and  shot  and  swords  every 
Lord's-day  to  the  meeting  house"  without  a 
huzzah  and  a  quicker  beating  of  the  heart.  When 
man  lived  with  so  much  of  difficulty  to  defend  his 
conscience,  it  would  seem  that  even  the  dead 
must  respond  with  applause! 

Behold  the  adventurers  in  an  armour  of  "  coats 
basted  with  cottonwool"  for  defence  against 
Indian  arrows,  each  man  representing  an  annual 
allowance  from  the  town  treasury  of  a  pound  of 
lead  and  a  pound  of  powder;  the  "sentinell" 
in  the  turret  of  the  meeting  house;  the  "armed 
watcher  who  'paced  the  streets,'  and  three  cannon 
mounted  by  the  side  of  this  church  militant  which 
must  strongly  have  resembled  a  garrison. ' '  Listen 
to  the  masterly  description  of  these  strange 
soldiers  who  had  "  corslets  to  cover  the  body; 
gorgets  to  guard  the  throat;  tasses  to  protect 
the  thighs;  a  bandileer,  a  large  'neats  leather' 
belt  thrown  over  the  right  shoulder  and  hanging 
down    under    the    left    arm."     Each    man    wore 


Introduction  xxix 

either  a  "bastard  musket  with  a  snap  hance," 
a  "long  fowling  piece  with  musket  bore,"  a  "full 
musket"  and  a  "barrell  with  a  match-cock"  or 
perhaps  (for  they  were  purchased  by  the  town) 
"a  leather  gun."  We  are  told  that  this  sentinel 
"  had  attached  to  his  wrist  by  a  cord,  a  gun-rest, 
or  a  gun-fork,  which  he  placed  upon  the  ground 
when  he  wished  to  fire  his  musket"  and  that  he 
"carried  a  sword  and  sometimes  a  pike;  and  thus 
heavily  burdened  with  multitudinous  arms  and 
cumbersome  armour  could  never  have  run  after 
or  from  an  Indian  with  much  agility  or  celerity 
though  he  could  stand  at  the  church  door  with 
his  leather  gun — an  awe-inspiring  figure."  These 
were  Salem  soldiers.  In  New  Haven  there  was 
another  equipment.  In  Concord,  New  Hamp- 
shire, they  "  stacked  their  muskets  around  a  post 
in  the  middle  of  the  church  while  the  honoured 
pastor  who  was  a  good  shot  and  owned  the  best 
gun  in  the  settlement,  preached  with  his  treasured 
weapon  in  the  pulpit  by  his  side."  This  strange 
spectacle  might  seem  grotesque  if  it  were  not 
coupled  inevitably  with  the  tremendous  so\il- 
impulse  behind  it.  Just  so  their  unlovely  spiritual 
exhibitions  would  fail  to  impress  us  were  not  the 
rigours  of  their  condition,  their  tremendous  dan- 


XXX  Old  New  England  Churches 

gers,  and  their  heroic  resistance  to  material  evil 
for  spiritual  good  presented  at  the  same  time. 
Regarded  synthetically,  this  desolate  aspect  be- 
comes luminant,  this  lifeless  spectacle  pulses  and 
compels  for  itself  a  place  in  history  unmatched  for 
fortitude  by  Spartan  heroism;  nor  as  a  spectacle 
was  it  matched.  It  was  real,  and  three  hundred 
years  later  it  has  become  sublime. 

In  those  early,  half  legendary  days  all  phe- 
nomena of  nature  made  hortatory  opportunity  for 
the  pulpit.  A  frightful  storm  on  the  night  of  Feb- 
T\xary  22,  1722,  was  the  occasion  and  text  of  many 
sermons  in  the  morning.  A  minister  in  Boston  on 
the  Lord's-day  following,  began  his  discourse, 
"A  Mighty  Storm  in  the  Last  NIGHT  beyond, 
which  this  morning  we  find  so  growing  upon  us 
that  I  thought  it  SEASONABLE  etc."  The 
storm  was  the  occasion  for  this  man  of  God  to 
prophesy  for  Boston  the  fate  of  "  Ninive." 

The  earthquake  of  1727  so  aroused  human 
apprehension  and  religious  frenzy,  that  John 
Brown  of  Haverhill  wrote  to  John  Cotton  that 
"rain  or  shine"  a  vast  number  of  people — ^mostly 
young  and  unmarried — ^pursued  him  "  from  morn- 
ing until  eight  o'clock  at  night  without  so  much 
as  time  to  take  any  bodily  refreshment."     They 


Introduction  xxxi 

flocked  to  him  to  be  "  admitted  and  propounded." 
The  earthquake  reformed  "  drunkards  and  swearers' ' 
and  "melted  them  to  tears."  John  Brown  re- 
marked significantly  in  his  letter,  "  There  seems  to 
be  in  town  a  general  reformation."  John  Cotton 
declared  that  "  in  the  late  terrible  earthquake 
thousands  of  men  come  to  amend  their  ways 
and  doings  and  return  unto  the  Lord.  If 
after  this  shaking  they  settle  upon  their  Lees 
again,  I  also  say,  'The  Lord  have  mercy  upon 
them.'  "  Indeed,  William  Cooper  of  a  Boston 
church  preached  upon  "The  danger  of  Peoples 
losing  the  good  impression  made  by  the  late 
terrible  earthquake." 

But  into  the  midst  of  so  much  of  tragedy  and  hell- 
fire  there  crept  the  leaven  of  humour,  untranslated 
in  those  days,  which  served  almost  to  satirise 
even  so  rousing  and  awesome  a  condition  as  that 
of  the  Puritan.  While  William  Cooper,  John 
Cotton,  Dr.  Charles  Chauncey,  Benjamin  Colman, 
Thomas  Foxcroft,  and  other  men  of  God  whose 
name  is  Legion,  were  speaking  prophetically, 
warning  a  sinful  world  to  depart  from  its  ways, 
pointing  it  from  the  very  sink  of  hell  as  revealed 
in  the  tremendous  cataclysm,  one  Josiah  Smith 
preached    in    CharJestown,    Province    of    South 


xxxii  Old  New  England  Churches 

• 
Carolina,   a  sermon  full  of  most  excellent  good 

sense  on  this  same  absorbing  topic,  and  from  the 
standpoint  of  to-day  a  discourse  of  no  little  humour. 
This  sermon  of  February  24,  1727,  was  preached 
in  vindication  of  the  people  of  New  England ;  and 
this  preacher,  rendered  either  fearless  by  reason 
of  his  intelligence,  or  reckless  by  reason  of  his 
education,  maintained  for  the  glory  of  New  En- 
gland that "  the  greatest  sufferers  "  were  not  always 
"the  greatest  sinners."  He  declared  unto  the 
people  of  Charlestown  that  New  England  was 
full  of  good  works.  He  pointed  manfully  to  her 
judiciary,  to  her  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  to  her 
heaven-pointing  spires,  to  her  former  prosperity, 
maintained  in  spite  of  pestilence  and  of  the  ex- 
travagant climatic  conditions  of  several  seasons, 
and  he  also  reminded  Charlestown  that  the  earth- 
quake had  "almost  reached  South  Carolina,"  and 
that  "very  probably  by  comparing  TIME" 
Charlestown  "heard  the  ROAR."  He  further 
remarked  significantly,  "  What  sheer  mercy  that 
we  only  heard  the  roar!"  Let  us  imagine  the 
ministerial  eye  looking  down  upon  Charlestown 
while  delivering  this  shaft.  En  parenthesis,  he 
informed  Charlestown  that  "  its  strange  stupidity 
is  our  greatest  danger."     Yes,  and  he  even  added. 


Introduction  xxxiii 

"There  is  doubtless  provision  enough  in  Nature 
for  an  earthquake  in  Carolina." 

Earthquakes  and  storms,  droughts,  crops,  no 
crops,  health,  pestilence — all  things,  good  or  ill, 
were  occasions  for  the  praise  of  God,  for  an  econom- 
ical commendation  of  the  people  or  an  unstinted 
condemnation  of  them  in  that  Year  of  Our  Lord 
1727. 

There  is  not  a  little  humour  to  be  extracted  from 
these  dread  sermons  and  even  from  the  statistical 
compilations  of  the  time.  One  minister  com- 
piled church  statistics  in  1760  as  follow:  Massa- 
chusetts, 306  churches;  Connecticut,  170  churches; 
New  Hampshire,  43  churches;  Rhode  Island, 
11;  Total,  530.  But  being  somewhat  oppressed 
by  his  conscience,  he  took  pains  to  assure  his 
audience  that  while  the  list  might  not  be  absolutely 
accurate,  he  had  the  "  Number  of  Congregational 
churches  not  augmented  beyond  the  Truth," 
from  which  we  may  infer  that  this  man  of  statistics 
was  himself  a  Congregational  preacher,  not  en- 
tirely without  a  very  human  desire  to  exaggerate 
in  favour  of  his  own  people. 

If  we  smile  in  passing,  we  also  approve,  since 
it  is  such  human  inclinations,  struggling  through 
a  sombre,  almost  black  opacity  of  thought,  which 


xxxiv  Old  New  England  Churches 

remind  us  or  perhaps  assure  us  that  those  grave 
and  rugged  seigneurs  were  of  our  own  genus. 
It  is  these  things  alone  which  bridge  the  past 
which  otherwise  is  so  aHen  in  thought,  in  sur- 
roundings, in  achievement  to  those  of  us  who 
think  and  feel  and  dare  and  do  to-day. 


FIRST  CHURCH,   BOSTON,   MASS. 


CHAPTER   I  .  -\?,/:: 

First  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 

ON  A  MIDSUMMER  day  in  Charlestown  the 
First  Church  was  estabhshed  by  four  En- 
glishmen covenanting  together.  John  Winthrop 
was  one  more  of  these  four.  Thus  '  'two  or  three 
gathered  together  in  His  name  "laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  First  Church  in  Boston.  The  church 
was  without  a  preacher  for  a  time,  but  in  the 
vacancy  John  Winthrop  "exercised  in  the  way 
of  prophesying,"  which  means  that  he  preached. 

There  was  one  preacher  among  the  four  cov- 
enanters— ^the  Rev.  John  Wilson — ^but  he  did  not 
claim  precedence  in  the  group ;  he  was  simply  one 
of  the  company. 

On  the  Sunday  following  the  organisation  five 
more  names  were  added,  and  in  this  manner,  a 
few  at  a  time,  the  church  grew  and  acquired  a 
congregation  and  a  membership.  The  unattrac- 
tiveness,  at  the  same  time  the  forcefulness  of 
these  people  is  evident  even  in  their  nomenclature 
and  phraseology.     They  distinguished  the  read- 


4  Old  New  England  Churches 

ing  and  expounding  of  the  Bible  after  the  Puritan 
plan,  from  the  Church  of  England's  use  of  it,  as 
"dumb  reading" — an  expression  which  conveys 
all  they  meant  and  which  at  the  same  time  seems 
to  fall  as  fiat  and  poverty-stricken  as  language 
can  well  fall.  Certain  of  their  habits  of  thought 
impress  one  as  most  peculiar;  to  them  neither 
marriage  nor  death  was  an  occasion  of  special 
sacredness.  Marriage  at  that  time  could  not  be 
solemnised  by  a  religious  ceremony ;  it  was  simply 
a  civil  contract,  precisely  as  we  have  learned  now 
to  regard  it.  It  is  strange  that  it  should  have 
been  so  in  the  light  of  a  later  theological  enthu- 
siasm. One  does  not  wonder  at  the  absence 
of  the  marriage  ring;  it  was  too  symbolical  and 
smacked  of  heathenism.  In  regard  to  death — since 
they  only  lived  to  die — it  still  seems  inappropriate 
that  burial  should  not  have  been  accompanied  by 
a  religious  ceremony. 

It  is  useless  to  try  to  reconcile  the  deeds  with 
the  theories  of  those  people.  They  hated  the 
Catholic  Church,  as  the  Devil  hates  holy  water, 
because  of  its  symbolism,  which  the  Puritans 
regarded  as  too  perfunctory  for  hot  results;  and 
yet  they  substituted  an  absolutely  unlimited 
symbolism  for  the  extremely  limited  one  of  the 


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First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  5 

Catholics.  Thunder  was  symbolic  of  God's  anger; 
a  failure  of  crops  was  symbolic  of  his  wrath ;  an 
earthquake  was  symbolic  of  his  displeasure; 
everything  was  symbolic  of  one  thing — a  vin- 
dictive God,  and  they  were  put  to  it  to  find  enough 
synonomous  words  to  express  God's  attitude. 

They  lived  upon  spiritual  symbolism,  and  as 
that  of  the  imagination  is  without  limit,  they 
simply  outdid  the  Catholics  on  their  own  ground; 
only  to  the  Puritan  the  Catholic  seemed  to  have 
vulgarised  his  imaginings  by  giving  them  form. 

The  autumn  which  followed  this  organisation 
of  the  First  Church  was  gentle,  and  the  winter 
was  not  too  protractedly  severe.  Blackstone, 
who  was  settled  on  the  peninsula,  welcomed  the 
stragglers  most  hospitably  as  they  gradually 
drifted  thither.  But  the  ecclesiastical  element 
which  they  brought  with  them  was  too  much  even 
for  Blackstone,  who  was  himself  a  clerical;  hence 
he  left  them  and  "  struck  out  anew  into  the  wilder- 
ness, where  he  could  be  quit  of  ministers  as  well 
as  of  bishops." 

Those  of  the  First  Church  still  worshipped  in 
the  open.  Cabins  were  springing  up  all  about 
them,  but  there  was  much  illness  and  a  lack  of 
food.     The  original  four  of  this  church  were  very 


6  Old  New  England  Churches 

nearly  extinguished  at  this  time.  Gager  and 
Isaac  Johnson  died  and  presently  the  preacher 
went  to  England  to  bring  his  family  back  with  him. 
The  congregation,  however,  was  left,  and  under 
Winthrop's  and  Wilson's  guidance  they  kept 
together.  Then  came  John  Eliot,  famous  as  the 
apostle  of  the  Indians.  His  goodness,  his  devo- 
tion are  monuments  to  man's  charity,  but  how 
much  permanent  good  his  work  resulted  in,  ex- 
cept to  the  antiquarian  who  will  preserve  his  Bible 
in  the  Indian  language,  is  a  question  for  individual 
judgment  to  settle.  As  an  instance  of  mis- 
sionary devotion,  Eliot's  was  almost  unexampled. 
Probably  no  people  in  the  world  needed  the 
constant  attention  of  a  great  and  good  man  like 
Eliot  as  badly  as  did  the  Puritans  themselves, 
but  most  of  his  attention  was  given  to  the  ab- 
origines. Perhaps  he  actually  served  the  Puri- 
tans by  influencing,  temporarily,  a  handful  of 
Indians  whose  ultimate  fate  was  to  be  exter- 
mination; but  at  best  he  served  only  the  imme- 
diate generation,  while  all  that  was  done  for  good 
or  evil  among  the  men  of  his  own  race,  finds  echo 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  later. 

Meanwhile  Roger  Williams  was  with  the  First 
Church.     Thus  with  Eliot  the  faithful,  Williams 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  7 

the  progressive,  Wilson  full  of  affection  for  the 
people  and  faith  in  their  undertaking,  the  First 
Church  seems  to  have  had  a  peculiarly  rich  early- 
history;  but  we  find  the  contemporary  eccle- 
siastical writers  expressing  a  peculiar  and  ex- 
treme prejudice  against  Williams.  There  is 
little  intelligent  explanation  of  this,  and  even 
churchmen  of  to-day,  who  writfe  liberally  and 
understand  ingly  upon  the  conditions,  men, 
and  deeds  of  former  times,  refuse  to  give  full 
credit  to  Roger  Williams.  There  would  seem 
to  be  a  constitutional  jealousy  of  him  in  the 
Church.  The  arguments  that  are  intended  to 
discountenance  him,  are  in  themselves  testi- 
monies to  his  services,  his  wisdom  and  substan- 
tiality. The  disapproval  of  him  seems  to  be 
emotional  rather  than  mental.  The  Rev.  Rufus 
Ellis    of    the    First    Church    wrote    resentfully: 

"  Williams  claims  to  have  been  unanimously  chosen 
teacher  of  our  church  and  adds  that  he  declined 
the  office  because  of  the  tacit  if  not  open  com- 
munion with  the  Church  of  England.  .  .  .  We 
only  know,  as  I  have  said,  that  Eliot,  who  is  re- 
membered for  his  deeds  as  Williams  for  his  theories 
took  temporary  charge,  while  the  future  founder  of 
Rhode  Island  went  on  his  way  for  a  season  to 
Salem." 


8  Old  New  England  Churches 

Some  one  else  remarks  that  Quakers  and  all  other 
criminals  (judged  by  Puritan  standards)  found 
their  way  to  Rhode  Island  and*  there  dwelt  in 
peace  and  flourished — in  spite  of  themselves  and 
Roger  Williams;  and  that  even  now  Rhode 
Island  gets  on  fairly  well!  There  is  something 
grotesque  in  such  reasoning.  If  Roger  Williams 
was  a  man  given  wholly  to  theories,  these  re- 
sults would  indicate  that  faith  without  works  is 
exceedingly  profitable;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
there  is  an  unregenerate  belief  that  with  Williams 
there  was  more  of  "works"  than  of  "faith" — 
except  faith  in  himself  and  in  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Those  who  even  to-day  are  jealous  of 
his  amazing  success  at  making  a  people  happy 
in  the  wilderness,  and  in  founding  a  state  which 
is  a  substantial  factor  in  New  England  eco- 
nomics, provide  us  with  a  mass  of  personal 
reflections  which  seem  to  be  thrown  off  into 
space,  distributing  themselves  with  a  wild  incon- 
sistency. 

The  church's  first  notable  work  was  its  service 
to  the  Indians  who  were  suffering  at  that  time 
from  an  epidemic  of  smallpox;  but  this  was  not 
exclusively  the  work  of  the  society;  the  entire 
town  of  Boston  and  the  outlying  villages  had  a 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  9 

hand  in  it,  even  taking  the  sick  and  their  children 
into  their  own  houses. 

In  time  John  Cotton  came  to  the  pulpit  and  he 
determined  that  the  ministry  should  be  main- 
tained by  weekly  contributions  as  opposed  to  a 
subsidised  church.  He  was  exceedingly  arbitrary 
in  his  rule,  declaring  what  men  should  be  voted 
for  and  what  not.  One  election  which  did  not 
please  him  he  reversed  on  a  Thursday  lecture 
day,  and  it  is  said  that  by  so  doing  he  saved  to 
Boston  its  Common.  He  also  had  trouble  with 
Eliot  who  had  all  the  moral  courage  necessary 
to  the  pioneer.  Eliot  made  bitter  protest  against 
the  unfair  treatment  of  the  Indians,  and  Cotton 
was  called  upon  by  the  magistrates  whom  Eliot 
attacked,  to  "reduce"  him,  who  was  about  as 
reducible  as  a  fraction  at  its   lowest   terms. 

We  find  a  very  positive  instance  of  rebellion 
to  Cotton's  autocracy,  when  he  tried  to  retain  a 
governor  in  his  office  directly  against  the  wishes 
of  the  people.  The  republican  spirit  was  large 
even  then,  and  while  the  people  approved  of 
Cotton's  choice,  and  afterward,  of  their  own 
volition,  reelected  the  governor  for  the  second  time, 
they  chose  a  new  one  for  an  interregnum  in  order 
to  assert  their  independence  of  John  Cotton. 


lo  Old  New  England  Churches 

This  First  Church  in  Boston  housed  certain 
legislative  assemblies  notable  in  American  his- 
tory. Once  the  question  arose  "If  a  governor 
should  be  sent  by  England,  what  should  New 
England  do?"  Also,  "Is  it  lawful  to  carry  the 
cross  in  our  banner? " 

The  decision  of  the  ministers  was,  "As  to  the 
cross  in  the  banner,  we  are  not  ready  to  say 
that  may  be  an  idolatrous  symbol  or  not.  But 
as  to  the  governor,  we  are  quite  clear  that  we 
should  not  accept  him,  not  though  we  should  be 
compelled  to  fight." 

Their  habit  of  interpreting  the  Bible  without 
any  appreciation  of  geographical  distribution,  cus- 
toms, or  times,  was  demonstrated  by  Mr.  Cotton 
when  he  took  pains  to  prove  by  the  Scriptures 
that  it  was  permissible  for  women  to  put  aside 
their  veils  in  church,  unless  the  custom  of  the 
place  made  veils  the  token  of  subjection.  Mr. 
Cotton  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  understand 
that  the  Orient  was  not  located  in  New  England 
and  that  the  S37^mbol  in  Judaea  might  possibly 
not  be  the  symbol  in  Boston.  Governor  En- 
dicott,  however,  took  the  other  side.  This 
question  of  veils  or  no  veils  became  very  famous, 
and  stopped  short  of  being  infamous   only  be- 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.    _  ii 

cause  the  governor  took  a  hand  in  it  and  settled 
the  dispute. 

Roger  Williams  presently  raade  more  trouble 
— as  a  spirit  of  fairness  was  bound  to  do  at  that 
time.  Even  to-day  the  ecclesiastical  historian 
speaks  deprecatingly  of  Williams's  protest  that 
the  title  to  lands  by  King  James's  grant  should 
not  be  maintained;  and  that  there  was  a  moral 
necessity  to  compromise  with  the  Indians.  The 
magistrates  objected  to  this  then,  and  a  good 
many  people  seem  to  object  to  it  now  that  they 
know  better.  He  contended  that  King  James's 
dole  was  "a  solemn  public  lie"  when  it  asserted 
that  he  was  the  first  Christian  prince  to  discover 
America.  King  James  saw  fit  to  christen  Europe, 
Christendom,  and  to  this  also  Williams  took 
exception.  It  seems  as  if  the  unprejudiced  mind 
must  incline  to  agree  with  him;  and  as  there  were 
a  good  many  at  that  time  who  were  ready  to 
christen  New  England,  Christendom,  one  marvels 
that  Williams  did  not  have  better  luck  at  the 
hands  of  his  detractors.  Mr.  Williams  called  King 
Charles  names  drawn  from  the  Book  of  Revelations. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Ellis  says  that  the  governor  took 
advice  from  judicious  ministers  and  induced 
Roger  Williams   to   retract,   but   this  retraction 


12  Old  New  England  Churches 

was  the  last  of  which  he  was  ever  guilty — or 
which  he  had  the  grace  to  make.  Mr.  Ellis  goes 
on  to  say,  "  He  was  soon  able  to  get  a  surer  foot- 
ing on  more  advanced  and  firmer  ground.  He 
was  doubtless  then  on  his  way  to  his  doctrine  of 
soul  liberty  and  an  extreme  liberalism  so  extreme 
that,  for  what  he  deemed  lack  of  fit  companion- 
ship, the  Lord's  Supper  could  be  no  communion 
for  him  save  as  he  could  observe  it  with  his  wife  " 
— ^which  means  only  that  Roger  Williams  was 
particular  as  to  the  company  he  kept  in  those 
days  when  a  great  many  outrageous  people  pre- 
vailed. Again  Roger  Williams  insisted  that  his 
business  was  with  public  morals  and  offences 
against  order,  decency,  and  general  welfare,  and 
not  with  the  regulation  of  souls  and  their  God. 
"He  must  not  put  an  unregenerate  man  with 
the  oath;  for  what  communion  hath  light  with 
darkness? "  All  of  which  gives  us  the  profoundest 
respect  for  this  man,  who  was  the  Beecher  of  his 
time  in  respect  to  being  in  advance  of  it.  But 
this  working  intelligence  of  his  was  a  grave  offence, 
and  again  he  was  called  to  account  by  the  civil 
authorities  and  by  the  church,  but  they  could  no 
more  "  reduce  "  him  than  they  could  reduce  Eliot, 
who  also  had  an  intelligence  as  well  as  a  conscience. 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  .     13 

It  was  decided  that  Williams's  very  presence 
was  inimical  to  the  church.  It  is  remarkable  to 
record  that  they  did  not  hang  him,  but  let 
him  off  with  banishment.  They  sent  him  into 
the  wilderness,  anywhere  beyond  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts,  to  grow  up  with  the  country  or 
to  be  eaten  up  by  the  Savages  as  chance  might 
have  it.  As  chance  did  have  it,  his  banishment 
brought  about  great  results,  and  though  First 
Church  repudiated  him  it  is  bound  to  shine  by 
his  reflected  light.  The  church  tried  to  do  it- 
self out  of  a  good  thing  but  did  not  succeed:  and 
perhaps,  like  certain  colleges  that  have  latterly 
conferred  alphabetical  distinction  upon  successful 
litterateurs  whom  these  same  colleges  rusticated 
and  denied  a  degree  before  fame  was  dreamed  of, 
the  First  Church  to-day  would  like  to  take  unto 
itself  more  credit  for  Roger  Williams's  fame  than 
it  deserves.  The  patronising  references  by  the 
exceedingly  commonplace  preachers  of  to-day  to 
the  man  who  was  able  to  buy  and  sell  them  in- 
tellectually, as  well  as  by  virtue  of  his  actual 
achievements,  would  be  unworthy  of  mention 
did  they  not  prove  that  a  cat  may  look  at  the 
king,  or  that  almost  anybody  may  do  almost 
anything  to  his    betters    without   impeding   the 


14  Old  New  England  Churches 

tremendous  forces  of  moral  courage  and  good 
sense. 

In  considering  the  reasons  for  the  success  of 
this  nation — reasons  which  seemingly  grew  out 
of  so  limited,  bigoted,  and  disastrous  a  time, 
place,  and  people — ^we  must  disregard  Puritanism 
and  the  purpose  which  first  settled  these  New 
England  colonies.  Puritanism  in  its  extreme 
phase  is  not  an  impelling  cause,  but  only  a  result 
of  several  tremendous  forces  lying  in  the  temper 
of  a  people.  In  the  first  place  this  country  was 
settled  by  the  second  or  younger  sons  of  English- 
men. It  is  perfectly  well  known  that  it  is  the  second 
bom — all  other  things  being  equal — who  is  given 
the  best  constitution  mentally,  morally,  and  phy- 
sically. In  discussing  this  with  an  Englishman 
he  said: 

"  I  cannot  understand  why  it  is  that  this  country 
is  so  far  in  advance  of  the  Mother  Country,  and 
is  peopled  by  a  nation  that  has  been  able  to 
do  in  two  hundred  years  what  its  brother, 
Old  England,  would  have  required  three 
times  the  time  and  opportunity  to  bring  about. 
It  was  only  our  younger  sons,  our  left-overs  who 
came  here  in  the  beginning.      What  is  wrong?" 

There  was  nothing  wrong  except  the  man's 
anthropological  deductions. 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  15 

Again,  the  man  who  dares  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  of  a  new  world  is  virile  in  the  extreme. 
Thus  this  country  was  settled  by  the  very  pick 
of  the  English  nation.  Moreover,  the  Puritan's 
religion  was  only  skin  deep,  however  much  it 
may  seem  upon  superficial  observation  to  have 
been  otherwise.  Was  not  George  Washington 
as  much  the  god  of  the  Puritan  (when  he  got  to 
fighting)  as  one  of  their  own  creed?  It  took 
something  as  strenuous  as  war  to  break  down  their 
religious  prejudices  and  fanaticism,  but  war  did 
it.  The  strength,  the  courage,  the  vitality  of 
England  settled  here.  It  was  hampered  by  a 
religious  fanaticism;  on  the  other  hand  that 
fanaticism  was  an  evidence  of  temperament — a 
thing  unknown  to  the  Englishman  in  his  prime 
estate.  Puritanism  was  not  a  cause  of  our 
extraordinary  achievement.  It  hampered  us,  it 
delayed  civilisation,  but  could  not  stop  it;  and 
it  was  an  evidence  of  the  force  that  won. 

It  was  in  1636,  in  March,  that  the  Rev.  Hugh 
Peters  took  the  first  step  toward  establishing 
a  sort  of  employment  agency,  in  proposing  to 
First  Church  that  it  should  supply  the  people 
with  employment  in  winter-time  lest  idleness 
ruin  both  Church  and  State. 


1 6  Old  New  England  Churches 

In  time  came  Wheelwright  as  the  third  preacher 
to  First  Church.  Antinomianism  arrived  and 
left  its  mark,  and  there  were  very  emotional  sea- 
sons in  the  church's  history  but  John  Winthrop 
maintained  the  balance.  Wheelwright's  preach- 
ing very  nearly  brought  about  civil  disorganisa- 
tion, his  enemies  and  supporters  coming  into 
conflict,  until  tranquillity  was  restored  by  his 
banishment.  It  was  at  this  climax  that  the 
election  of  the  governor  occurred  and  it  was  con- 
trolled entirely  by  the  theological  situation.  Mr. 
Winthrop' s  success  in  this  election  was  probably 
due  to  the  Rev.  John  Wilson's  speech,  delivered 
from  a  tree. 

Cotton  became  greatly  involved  in  the  anti- 
nomian  doctrine,  and  John  Winthrop  seems  to 
have  been  the  only  man  who  kept  his  head  at  this 
crisis.  At  last  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  antinomian 
leader,  not  finding  it  convenient  to  think  pre- 
cisely as  the  society  of  the  First  Church  thought, 
was  incontinently  cast  out:  it  was  not  tolerable 
to  the  people  of  First  Church  to  contemplate 
a  worthiness  greater  than  their  own.  The  treat- 
ment of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  very  distressing. 
However,  the  church  only  banished  her,  did  not 
follow  the  custom  of  the  day  and  kill   her — the 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  17 

Indians  did  that  somewhat  later.  It  was  about 
this  time  that  Dorothy  Talbye  was  driven  so  mad 
by  the  strain  of  a  morbid  rehgion  that  she  murdered 
her  child,  hoping  that  it  might  escape  the  miseries 
she  herself  had  suffered.  The  mad  woman  was 
hanged  as  a  matter  of  course,  while  the  church 
was  not  even  put  into  the  stocks.  This  dis- 
tracted mother  begged  to  be  beheaded  because 
she  thought  it  a  less  painful  and  shameful 
death  than  hanging;  but  the  church,  which  was 
then  the  law,  was  not  engaged  in  humane  prac- 
tices but  only  in  the  worship  of  God,  and  very  nat- 
urally the  more  a  victim  disliked  hanging  the  more 
profoundly  careful  the  church  was  to  hang  him. 

One  man  who  ventured  to  remark  that  the 
church  was  dogmatic  slightly  in  excess  of  com- 
fort and  convenience  was  promptly  whipped 
and  fined.  This  was  a  citizen  otherwise  in  good 
standing.  In  all  probability  the  vicarious  con- 
science never  dwelt  so  long  and  successfully  in  an 
entire  people  as  it  did  in  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

It  is  said  that  the  church  was  very  solicitous 
in  looking  after  the  morals  of  Boston — in  short,  the 
First  Church  determined  that  Boston  should  be  ed- 
ucated up  to  its  standard  or  Boston  should  perish. 


1 8  Old  New  England  Churches 

There  seemed  to  be  but  one  thing  that  could 
resist  this  absolute  theocracy,  and  that  was 
fashion.  The  General  Court  inveighed  against 
it,  but  alas,  the  General  Court  had  a  wife, 
and  the  preachers  had  wives,  and  though  the 
preachers  and  the  General  Court  might  control 
all  else  in  the  world  they  had  not  the  power  to 
say  how  its  fig  leaf  should  be  cut. 

One  historian  says,  "The  church  is  scarcely 
ten  years  old,  and  must  begin  its  series  of  re- 
movals from  one  house  to  another;  but  what 
would  we  not  give  to-day  for  so  much  as  a  fragment 
of  the  first  building."  We  cannot  endorse  the 
taste  of  this  chronicler  of  distressful  events.  On 
the  contrary  we  should  expect  the  people  to 
rejoice  at  moving  away  and  separating  them- 
selves from  every  vestige  of  the  house  which  had 
witnessed  so  much  wrong,  instituted  so  much 
injustice  and  inhumanity,  hoping  to  begin  with 
a  clean  spirit  in  a  clean  house. 

Mary  Gay  Humphreys  once  wrote  a  famous 
editorial  in  the  old  days  of  "Hearth  and  Home" 
called  "The  Immorality  of  Inanimate  Things." 
She  chose  panniers,  which  were  then  in  fashion, 
as  her  subject  for  demonstration.  It  is  well  she 
did  not  live  in  a  time  when  churches  instead  of 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  19 

panniers  were  in  fashion,  else  she  must  certainly 
have  written  that  editorial  upon  churches;  and 
while  those  early  Puritan  desperadoes  would  now 
be  mercifully  forgotten,  their  meeting  houses 
would  be  immortalised — The  Immorality  of  Inani- 
mate Things! 

About  this  time  in  the  history  of  First  Church 
Mr.  Cotton  who  seems  to  have  been  a  man  given 
to  borrowing  trouble,  must  have  looked  forward 
to  his  superannuation,  because  he  began  to  agitate 
for  a  pension  to  be  given  those  officials  who  had 
grown  old  in  public  service.  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
sympathiser  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  kind  and 
tolerant  man,  was  a  member  of  First  Church  and, 
of  course,  he  met  the  fate  of  those  who  indulged 
in  thoughts  of  their  own.  A  good  many  great 
ones  of  the  earth  belonged  to  the  First  Church 
who  were  doubtless  deterred  by  the  intolerance  of 
the  time  from  being  as  great  as  they  might  have 
been.  Immigration  to  New  England  had  now 
ceased  and  emigration  had  begun.  We  read 
that  ten  years  after  Winthrop  landed  here  between 
twenty-one  and  twenty-five  thousand  English- 
men had  returned  to  England. 

Punishments  visited  by  the  First  Church  seem 
to  have  descended  if  not  unto  the  third  and  fourth 


20  Old  New  England  Churches 

generations  at  least  unto  the  second :  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son's son  was  called  to  account  "for  reviling  the 
churches,"  which  was  bad  enough  to  be  sure, 
but  considering  the  fate  of  his  mother,  his  failure 
to  revile  them  would  have  merited  a  worse  punish- 
ment than  any  that  the  church  could  inflict — 
and  the  church  was  particularly  versatile  in  the 
matter  of  punishments.  The  son  was  imprisoned 
and  fined,  but  judgment  could  not  be  satisfied, 
and  as  an  additional  punishment  he  was  com- 
pelled to  attend  the  First  Church  while  he  was 
in  Boston.  As  he  was  forcibly  led  to  meeting 
there  was  nothing  optional  about  his  attendance. 
We  read  apropos  of  this  son  and  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's brother-in-law,  that  "  they  refused  to  come 
to  the  religious  assemblies  except  when  they  were 
led  and  so  they  caxae  duly." 

La  Tour  came  from  Acadia  in  1642  and  brought 
his  men.  They  were  Romanists,  and  of  such 
sturdy  metal  that  they  felt  the  First  Church  could 
not  especially  contaminate  them,  hence  they 
went  to  the  services.  This  gave  the  First  Church 
plenty  to  do  for  some  little  time,  as  the  burning 
question  of  the  hour  at  once  became,  "Should 
the  First  Church  have  league  and  fellowship  with 
idolaters?"     A    clothier,    Samuel    Gorton,    from 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  2X 

London,  became  a  disturber  of  the  peace,  since 
he  thought  in  some  other  way  than  did  the  First 
Church  (meaning  Boston).  The  First  Church 
made  it  rather  uncomfortable  for  him,  but  ex- 
cused itself  on  the  ground  that  he  had  made 
himself  objectionable  even  to  Roger  Williams. 
What  Roger  Williams  could  not  stand,  certainly 
the  First  Church  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  stand. 
Samuel  Gorton  must  have  been  a  truculent 
wretch  since  he  expressed  a  great  willingness  to 
hear  Mr.  Cotton  preach  provided  he  himself  be 
permitted  to  answer  Cotton.  "So  in  the  after- 
noon they  came,  and  were  placed  in  the  fourth 
seat  right  before  the  elders."  We  learn  that  the 
clothier  made  good  before  the  afternoon  was  out. 
The  Rev.  Rufus  Ellis,  a  preacher  of  the  First 
Church  has  recorded,  "After  the  manner  of  the 
times  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  punish  him  and 
his  friends  with  great  severity,  though  happily 
for  the  reputation  of  Massachusetts  they  escaped 
the  sentence  of  death  which  some  proposed." 
We  have  an  exceedingly  amusing  account 
of  another  group  of  Romanists  who  came  to 
Boston  town.  Unlike  La  Tour,  who  had  been 
snubbed  and  all  but  hanged  for  attending  First 
Church,  these  decided  not  to  go  at  all,  whereupon 


22  Old  New  England  Churches 

they  were  notified  by  the  governor  that  it  was 
"our  manner  that  all  men  either  come  to  our 
meetings  or  keep  themselves  quiet  in  their  houses." 
Thus  we  have  the  First  Church  in  still  another 
throe  of  agony,  on  still  another  count.  The  matter 
seems  to  have  been  compromised,  the  governor 
inviting  the  "Papists"  to  his  own  house  "where 
they  remained  till  sunset,  reading  books  in  Latin 
and  French  and  walking  in  his  garden."  It  is 
added  that  "they  gave  no  offence" — presumably 
kept  off  the  grass! 

There  is  something  so  extremely  absurd  in  the 
bumptiousness  of  this  story  that  it  is  impossible 
to  record  it  with  the  dignity  of  phrase  and  feeling 
one  is  ordinarily  inclined  to  use  in  treating  mat- 
ters of  history. 

Even  as  early  as  1650,  we  begin  to  see  the  de- 
cline of  Puritanism.  There  was  to  be  enough 
left  to  relieve  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  anything  like  monotony;  but  its  backbone 
was  broken  for  the  reason  that  good  citizenship 
and  good  church  membership  were  not  as  a  fact 
identical,  as  the  Puritan  demanded  they  should  be. 
A  good  many  people  wanted  to  vote  who  were 
unqualified  to  do  so  because  they  had  not  known 
that  spiritual  regeneration,   or  degeneration,   as 


First  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  23 

one  may  interpret  it,  demanded  by  the  church. 
If  not  a  member  of  the  church,  a  man  had  no  vote. 
This  situation  might  prevail  for  a  time  when 
affairs  were  inchoate,  but  when  a  man's  vote 
became  formahsed  and  meant  something  more 
than  a  meeting  in  somebody's  bam,  and  a  juggUng 
with  straws  or  kernels  of  red  and  white  corn, 
the  citizen  and  the  man  began  to  speak.  And 
when  the  citizen  speaks,  dogma  takes  a  back  seat 
every  time.  The  state  began  to  come  out  from 
among  the  ecclesiastics  and  be  separate. 

One  of  the  divines  of  the  First  Church,  who 
became  its  historian,  remarks  wisely  that  the 
Puritan  church  "was  not  a  place  for  the  nurture 
and  maturing  of  Christians."  He  goes  on  to 
qualify  this,  somewhat  spoiling  an  exceedingly 
good  statement,  but  we  will  not  by  quoting  fur- 
ther permit  him  to  do  himself  this  injustice. 

The  First  Church  deserves  precedence,  chrono- 
logically; but  in  the  summing  up,  it  is  possible 
that  First  Church  would  be  last  in  the  Christian 
roll-call  if  judged  by  its  too  high-handed  be- 
ginnings. However,  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
intolerant  sect.  First  Church  met  its  hour  of 
reform  and  regeneration,  and  grew  to  stand  solidly 
for  the  good  things  of  the  soul. 


OLD  NORTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  II 
Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 

THE  Second  Church  of  Boston  was  the  direct 
result  of  the  king-kiUing  in  England  in  1649; 
and  as  the  Rev.  Mr.  Van  Ness  has  formulated  it, 
"  The  more  visionary  of  the  Puritans  felt  that  the 
King's  downfall  was  synonymous  with  the  es- 
tablishment of  God's  commonwealth."  Thomas 
Van  Ness  discussed  the  beginnings  of  the  Second 
Church  in  so  interesting  a  manner  in  a  number  of 
the  Outlook  for  1903  that  the  compiler  of  this 
history  can  hardly  do  better  than  draw  from 
that  material. 

The  regicidal  happening  gave  such  impetus 
to  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  this  country  that  among 
other  churches  was  founded  "  ye  Second  Church  of 
Christe  in  Boston."  The  geographical  situation 
of  this  church  gave  to  it  the  name  of  Old  North. 
Chronologically  it  was  the  second  church.  The 
New  Brick  Church  was  an  offshoot  from  this 
society.      The  historian  points  out  how  the  very 

words  of  the  Covenant,  "We  here  freely  this  day 

27 


28  Old  New  England  Churches 

do  this  thing,"  have  been  the  dominant  note  in 
this  church,  always.  "We  here  freely  do  this 
thing! "  We  have  in  the  Second  Church  a  monu- 
ment to  the  political  as  well  as  the  religious  liberty 
of  that  time.  It  was  bom  when  the  New  World 
was  in  a  ferment.  The  pent-up  British  general 
called  the  Second  Church  a  "nest  of  traitors," 
which  was  enough  to  endear  it  to  more  than  its 
immediate  parish.  The  first  established  preacher 
was  the  Rev.  John  Mayo,  and  then  came  Increase, 
then  Cotton  Mather. 

To  write  of  the  Old  North,  the  New  Brick,  the 
Second  Church,  is  to  write  of  men  and  of  Mathers ; 
and  of  Cotton  Mather's  madness  rather  than  of 
Increase  Mather's  strength.  Thus  does  the  gauche, 
the  extreme,  superficially  dominate  over  the  wise 
and  moderate.  As  newspapers  fill  their  columns 
with  stories  of  crime  and  wrong  for  the  simple 
reason  that  these  are  news,  while  morality  and 
decency  are  so  common  as  to  have  lost  the  news 
qualification,  so  does  history,  liker  than  not, 
discuss  the  erratic  rather  than  the  brilliant, 
the  superficial  rather  than  the  substantial, 
because  they  are  dramatic  and  unusual,  while  wis- 
dom and  reason  are  common. 

The  good  works  of  Increase  Mather,  the  church's 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  29 

second  preacher,  were  overshadowed  by  the  crazy- 
flights  of  his  son,  which  finally  ended  in  murder, 
execration,  and  in  Cotton  Mather's  self-pity.  It 
does  not  seem  necessary  to  outline  the  latter' s 
history,  it  has  been  so  completely  done  again  and 
again.  We  speak  of  facts  very  well  known,  if 
not  especially  well  anatysed,  by  the  majority  who 
have  acquaintance  with  ecclesiastical  history. 
Now  and  then  we  find  a  biographer,  such  as  Rob- 
bins,  who  hopes  to  make  Mather's  absurdities 
and  outrages  reflect  a  too  pious  mind,  a  too  fine 
conscientiousness;  but  his  very  efforts  to  do 
this,  worry  the  careful  reader  with  the  utter 
futility  of  his  arguments  in  the  light  of  facts 
which  the  biographer  himself  presents.  In  In- 
crease Mather  we  have  a  character  already  verging 
upon  the  extreme.  Since  his  calling  was  that  of 
a  Puritan  preacher,  he  was  trained  in  the  ways  of 
superstition  and  theological  limitation;  but  for  all 
that,  so  far  as  these  limits  permitted  him  to  think 
independently,  we  find  him*  thinking  reasonably 
and  well,  and  acting  likewise.  Could  the  world 
have  been  spared  the  next  generation  of  Mathers 
the  name  would  have  left  a  pleasant  taste, 
instead  of  being  "ginger  hot  i'  the  mouth." 
Cotton  Mather  lacked  the  governor  of  self-control 


30  Old  New  England  Churches 

— a  deficiency  too  frequently  the  excuse  of  erratic 
beings.  He  was  vain ;  there  is  evidence  that  he  was 
sensual;  also  he  was  superstitious — ^these  three — 
and  we  do  not  know  in  which  of  them  he  was 
greatest.  That  he  was  irritable,  that  he  listed  as 
the  wind  bleweth,  being  disturbed  in  every  thought 
by  some  superstitious  reaction,  were  his  grave  mis- 
fortunes; but  it  is  possible  to  regard  these  as 
superficialities — affairs  of  temperament  from 
which  the  most  serious,  the  most  unselfish,  the 
most  well-meaning  might  suffer.  Those  things 
which  determine  character  were  present  in  full 
force,  however,  and  they  were  of  a  sort  which 
make  for  evil  rather  than  good. 
Robbins,  in  his  apology,  writes: 

"The  protuberance  of  a  few  eccentricities  has 
drawn  out  the  elements  of  his  character  into 
false  perspective.  His  oddities  stand  in  the 
light  of  his  virtues.  They  give  a  grotesqueness 
to  his  whole  being.  They  mark  the  man  so  strongly 
that  all  who  see  them  imagine  they  under- 
stand him.  .  .  .  They  conclude  they  have 
a  true  likeness,  when  they  have  only  a  broad 
caricature,  founded  upon  some  odd  feature  or 
two;  and,  with  a  smile  of  satisfaction  at  their 
own  penetration  and  his  peculiarity,  inquire  no 
deeper.  But  those  who  know  only  the  eccen- 
tricities of  Cotton  Mather  know  but  little  about 
him." 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  31 

When  eccentricities  dominate,  it  is  not  im- 
proper to  assume  that  in  them  we  know  the  whole. 
When  eccentricities  dominate,  they  stand  for  char- 
acter. The  "  protuberance  of  a  few  eccentricities  " 
cannot  falsify  character — not  when  it  is  illumined 
by  time  and  a  man's  deeds.  Emerson  tells  us 
that  consistency  is  the  bugbear  of  little  minds; 
meaning  consistency  as  interpreted  by  the  relation 
of  -one  finite  act  to  another  finite  act;  and  he 
urges  us  in  our  judgment  of  character  to  regard 
a  man's  deeds  synthetically.  It  is  fair  instruction, 
and  in  regarding  Cotton  Mather's  deeds  syn- 
thetically, and  in  regarding  his  "protuberances" 
in  the  same  way,  it  is  fair  to  assume  we  have  the 
man.  Neither  do  "oddities  stand  in  the  light" 
of  any  man's  virtues  if  the  man  be  public  enough 
and  shall  have  lived  long  enough  for  us  to  weigh  his 
deeds  in  the  balance  against  his  oddities.  Cotton 
Mather  lived  long  enough  for  us  to  do  this  thing, 
and  has  been  dead  long  enough  for  us  to  say  these 
things. 

Cyrano  de  Bergerac's  nose  was  so  ugly  a  nose 
that  it  made  him  a  very  ugly  man;  albeit  he  had 
a  pair  of  eyes  and  a  mouth — ^features  not  at  all 
extraordinary,  and  eyes  that  were  even  beautiful; 
but   Cyrano's   nose  prevailed.      In   his    case   his 


32  Old  New  England  Churches 

"protuberance"  was  not  of  the  soul.  It  was  a 
superficial  one  which  nevertheless  made  him  very- 
ugly.  It  may  have  been  that  the  spiritual  "  pro- 
tuberance" of  Cotton  Mather  was  no  greater  a 
defect  than  Cyrano's  nose  was  to  his  face,  but  it 
fairly  gives  us  the  spiritual  Mather,  and  we  do 
not  like  him.  Then  his  favourable  biographer 
says,  "The  fact  is,  few  characters  are  less  intelli- 
gible; few  harder  to  describe;  few  so  many  sided; 
few  have  so  little  uniformity."  And  so  on,  ad 
nauseam  until  we  have  a  full  half  page  of  un- 
symmetrical  details  of  character.  Fortunately 
one  as  mad  as  Mather  was  cannot  influence  even 
his  own  generation  beyond  a  limited  extent. 
The  impulse  that  gave  form  and  feature  to  the 
"protuberances"  discussed  by  the  Rev.  Chandler 
Robbins,  goes  to  make  up  the  sum  of  character. 
That  biographer  tells  us  it  was  Mather's 
"earnest  desire  and  constant  purpose  to  do  good.'* 
If  this  had  been  true,  then  the  much  wrong  that 
he  did,  being  so  far  at  variance  with  his  intentions, 
helps  to  marK  him  a  mind  diseased.  The  aberra- 
tion that  induced  a  well-intentioned  man  to  ap- 
prove when  the  life  was  squeezed  out  of  goodman 
Corey,  made  such  a  man  eligible  to  the  penitentiary 
or  to  the  gibbet.     Such  a  man  is  mad  or  bad — 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  33 

we  are  hardly  called  upon  to  speculate  which 
unless  his  disability  carries  him  far  enough  to 
afflict  others,  as  it  did  in  Mather's  case,  and  then 
it  were  a  shame  to  present  him  falsely  in  order 
to  give  lustre  or  save  odium  to  a  people  or  to  a 
religion. 

Dr.  Hale  has  spoken  of  the  Mathers  as  if  they 
were  the  impulse  and  the  heartbeat  of  the  wonder- 
ful development  in  trade  and  civilisation  that  was 
known  in  Boston  during  their  time.  "At  the 
beginning  here  was  a  little  village  of  perhaps  five 
thousand  people  unknown  to  the  world.  At  the 
end  of  it  the  commerce  of  Boston  was  larger  than 
that  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  combined,  and  her 
dealings  were  with  almost  every  port  in  Europe. 
The  Mathers  and  their  people  were  doing  their 
best,  in  all  this  time,  to  infuse  a  divine  life  into 
such  human  affairs."  But  one  is  inclined  to 
regard  the  period  covered  by  Cotton  Mather,  a 
temporary  eclipse  of  progress  so  far  as  Mather's 
activity  is  concerned.  When  we  see  the  splendid 
vital  forces  :of  right  thinking  and  responsible  action 
doing  their  work,  it  is  in  spite  of  the  Mather 
administration.  Dr.  Hale  ignores  the  fact,  in  dis- 
cussing the  Mathers,  that  New  England  was  no 
longer  a  theocracy;    that  sixteen  years  after  the 


34  Old  New  England  Churches  « 

Massachusetts  Colony  was  founded  the  great 
mass  of  people — "  thousands  "  says  the  petition — 
had  demanded  their  independence  of  the  church. 
They  demanded  civil  rights  without  first  having 
to  qualify  as  Puritans.  It  was  the  majority  that 
was  developing  Ne^  England,  while  the  Puritan 
fills  the  space  we  habitually  give  to  "news" — the 
exceptional;  the  grotesque  perhaps;  certainly 
the  picturesque. 

Dr.  Hale  in  his  apology  for  Cotton  Mather 
reminds  us  that  he  wrote  the  book  on  "  Invisible 
Wonders  "  when  a  very  young  man,  and  the  book 
is  "not  one  whit  more  absurd  than  the  absurd 
books  which  absurd  people  write  to-day."  But 
he  does  not  point  out  that  to-day  we  either  re- 
gard the  people  who  write  absurd  books  more 
or  less  indulgently  as  people  who  are  more  or  less 
unsound  or  else  such  books  are  frankly  admitted 
by  their  writers  to  be  fairy  tales.  Hauptmann 
wrote  Die  versunkene  Glocke,  but  we  are  not  hang- 
ing people  because  an  author  chooses  to  make 
literary  material  of  nixies  and  other  uncanny  things. 
When  Cotton  Mather  wrote  of  "  Invisible  Won- 
ders "  he  compelled  his  flock  to  live  up  to  them 
or  to  have  their  lives  crushed  out. 

Mather's  was  at  no  time  a  master  mind,  nor 


O  c 

W  I 

W  £ 

O  g 

O  o. 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  35 

was  his  the  master  hand  among  his  people.  He 
was  the  abject  slave  of  his  own  fears  and  dis- 
tractions, and  his  feverishness  influenced  others 
only  momentarily,  gaining  response  from  a  few 
febrile  souls  like  his  own.  The  natural  health 
that  was  in  the  community  prevailed,  and  he 
found  himself  so  much  despised  that  he  wrote 
with  a  whimpering  weakness — enough  to  have 
made  a  great  man  contemptible — when  he  found 
himself  hoisted  by  his  own  petard. 

"  Some, "  he  wrote  "  on  purpose  to  affront  me, 
call  their  negroes  by  the  name  of  Cotton  Mather, 
so  that  they  may  with  some  shadow  of  truth  assert 
crimes  committed  by  one  of  that  name  which  the 
hearers  take  me  to  be."  Here  speaks  a  mind 
diseased  if  ever  one  spoke.  Doubtless  negroes 
were  given  the  name  of  Cotton  Mather  in  derision 
or  contempt  by  those  who  at  last  vehemently 
protested  against  the  Mather  regime;  bat  only 
a  mind  capable  of  profound  meanness  could  find 
a  deeper  motive,  the  well  constructed  vindic- 
tiveness   which   Mather   discovered. 

"Where  is  the  man  whom  the  female  sex  have 
spit  so  much  of  their  venom  at?" 

"  Where  is  the  man  who  has  been  so  tormented 
with  such  monstrous   relatives?" 


36  Old  New  England  Churches 

"There  is  not  a  man  in  the  world  so  reviled, 
so  slandered,  so  cursed  among  sailors." 

"The  College  forever  puts  all  possible  marks 
of  disesteem  upon  me." 

"  My  company  is  as  little  sought  for,  and  there 
is  as  little  resort  unto  it  as  any  minister  that  I 
am  acquainted  with." 

"  And  many  look  upon  me  as  the  greatest  sinner." 

Obviously  this  man  was  a  paranoiac;  other- 
wise it  was  all  true,  and  he  was  a  villain.  It  is 
like  piling  Pelion  upon  Ossa  to  continue  to  quote 
the  excess  of  incident  which  goes  to  prove  either 
of  these  theories.     So  much  for  his  character. 

But  he  had  a  reputation  in  his  day  for  intel- 
lectuality and  for  having  made  contributions  to 
literature.  As  a  fact,  he  had  cerebral  provision 
for  an  extraordinary  memory,  which  is  not  neces- 
sarily the  sign  of  profound  intellectuality.  This 
power  of  memory  enabled  him  to  store  up  and 
collate  an  immense  amount  of  fact ;  but  it  was  all 
futile  since  he  so  presented  facts  as  to  make  him- 
self almost  useless  as  an  historian.  His  Mag- 
nolia is  given  place  not  in  serious  literature 
but  among  literary  freaks,  and  the  Rev.  Henry 
Ware  in  his  biographical  discussion  of  Mather 
remarks  brilliantly :  '  *  That  it  has  been  so  regarded  as 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  2>1 

a  literary  freak  is  proof  sufficient  that  its  merit  is 
quite  equivocal.  As  a  storehouse  of  documents 
and  facts  relating  to  the  early  history  of  the 
country  it  may  be  consulted  with  advantage;  but 
it  is  so  strangely  written  as  to  become  heavy  in  the 
reader's  hands,  and  so  mingled  with  the  credulity  and 
puerility  of  the  author's  mind,  that  even  Neal,  a  con- 
temporary writer  and  correspondent,  hardly  vent- 
ured to  cite  him  as  an  authority."  So  much  for 
the  value  of  his  contributions  to  history. 

As  for  his  scholarship,  it  would  be  an  anti- 
climax to  discuss  his  fatal  orthography! 

The  church  was  established  in  1650,  but  it  was 
not  until  1655  that  it  had  its  first  preacher.  There 
have  been  three  periods  of  great  development 
in  this  church,  which  have  directly  enhanced  its 
spiritual  history,  and  these  times  were  when  the 
church  was  in  the  hands  of  Increase  Mather,  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  and  Henry  Ware,  Jr.  Mr.  Van 
Ness  has  ably  commented  upon  this: 

"Increase  Mather  was  not  as  great  a  preacher 
as  his  son;  Emerson  was  one  of  the  poorest  pastors ; 
and  Henry  Ware,  Jr. ,  could  not  rank  with  Lathrop 
as  a  controversialist,  nor  indeed  with  those  who 
came  after  him  as  a  public  speaker.  Why,  then, 
by  common  consent  were  these  three  men  singled 
out  from  the  rest  as  representative?" 


38  Old  New  England  Churches 

Mr.  Van  Ness  regards  the  preaching  of  Increase 
Mather  as  "  most  of  it  rubbish,"  and  reminds  us  that 
his  books  are  not  read,  but  that  he  did  possess  that 
*  'highest  kind  of  courage — moral  courage. ' '  Increase 
Mather's  moral  courage,  of  which  there  was  small 
sign  in  his  son.  Cotton,  was  indubitably  proved  at 
the  time  he  went  before  the  General  Court  when 
the  Charter  was  in  peril.  Pushing  his  way  before 
the  General  Court,  as  it  was  about  to  surrender 
to  the  Royal  Commissioners,  in  a  speech  which 
electrified  all  who  heard,  he  exclaimed: 

"  I  hope  there  is  not  a  free  man  in  Boston  that 
can  be  guilty  of  such  a  thing.  We  shall  sin  against 
the  God  of  Heaven  if  we  do  this  thing." 

All  know  the  story  of  his  flight  to  England  and 
of  his  further  activity  in  that  matter.  We  have 
these  examples  of  that  force  felt  throughout  his 
ministry;  and  being  less  hampered  by  erraticism 
than  was  his  son.  Increase  Mather  was  a  true  guide 
to  his  people. 

In  speaking  of  Emerson,  "one  of  the  poorest 
pastors,"  Mr.  Van  Ness  points  to  his  essays,  re- 
minding one  of  the  dominant  note  found  in  them — 
hope. 

Of  Henry  Ware  another  writer  has  said,  "He 
was  the  embodiment  of  sympathy.     When  with 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  39 

him  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  forgot  their 
differences,  and  were  made  one  in  a  common 
fellowship."  Thus  we  see  how  much  farther- 
reaching  is  intellectual  and  spiritual  force  than 
personality.  The  latter  may  give  us  all  the  de- 
light that  do  the  walnuts  and  the  wine,  but  it  is 
the  very  substantial  dinner  that  has  gone  before 
which  sustains  us. 

The  Second  Church  is  less  dependent  upon 
accident  and  incident  for  the  making  of  its  history, 
than  upon  men  and  manners.  There  are  certain 
picturesque  stories  belong  to  this  church,  such  as 
the  tale  of  the  Paul  Revere  lights — claimed  by  both 
Christ's  Church  and  the  Old  North.  We  sym- 
pathise with  the  spirit  which  impels  either 
church  to  attach  to  itself  even  the  merest  shred  of 
that  which  was  the  glory  of  the  race — the  history 
of  the  world  in  1 776 — our  patriotic  deeds  of  derring- 
do  !  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  internal  evidence 
is  too  strongly  in  favour  of  the  Old  North  Church 
for  us  to  give  credit  to  any  other  for  those  belfry 
lights,  which,  in  all  probability  never  did  exist  in 
their  relation  to  Paul  Revere  and  the  particular 
occasion  for  which  they  seem  to  have  been  in- 
vented. There  is  plenty  of  evidence  to  nega- 
tive the  whole  story  but  if  it  did  happen  that 


40  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  Paul  Revere  lights  were  to  be  hung — "one 
if  by  land  and  two  if  by  sea" — ^to  inform  him  of 
the  movements  of  the  British,  it  is  not  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  they  would  have  been  placed  in 
Christ's  Church,  a  Tory  church,  instead  of  in  the 
other  so  notoriously  the  "  nest  of  traitors  "  to  Tory 
sympathies  and  British  interests.  Although  there 
is  a  world  of  incident  connected  with  this  church, 
it  is  difficult  to  heed  it  with  so  much  of  human  docu- 
ment on  every  hand,  for  men  are  always  more 
interesting  than  things. 

The  duties  of  citzenship  were  shouted,  whispered, 
entreated,  and  commanded  from  this  pulpit.  Mr. 
Lathrop  preached  of  the  Revolution.  He  proph- 
esied civil  war;  he  cried  one  day  "Americans, 
rather  than  be  hewers  of  wood  or  drawers  of  water 
for  any  nation  in  the  world,  will  spill  their  best 
blood."  Gage  seems  to  have  had  some  authority 
for  his  opinion  of  Second  Church.  It  made 
Revolutionary  history! 

Van  Ness,  discussing  Paul  and  history  and  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews  does  some  excellent 
thinking.  He  says  that  self-glorification  and 
personal  fame  were  farthest  from  Paul's  thoughts 
when  he  wrote  that  chapter;  "  yet  such  is  the  law 
of  virtue,"  he  continues,  "that  while  he  who  shall 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  41 

glorify  himself  shall  be  forgotten,  yet  he  who  for 
righteousness'  sake  is  willing  to  be  debased  and 
held  in  small  esteem  shall  live  forever  and  ever. 
Therefore  it  is  that,  try  as  Paul  will^  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Hebrews  commemorates  not  Barak  or 
Samson  or  Jephthah  or  any  of  the  others  whom 
the  apostle  sought  to  rescue  from  oblivion,  but 
commemorates  Paul  himself."  This  certainly  was 
true,  but  we  must  remember  that  Paul  did  not 
have  American  history  for  his  subject.  If  he  had, 
even  Paul  might  have  been  lost  sight  of. 

When  war  came,  it  seems  to  have  been  for- 
tuitous in  more  ways  than  one;  a  necessary  climax 
to  the  extraordinary  psychical  condition  into  which 
these  people  had  got  themselves.  At  first  this 
condition  seemed  a  sort  of  hypnotism  exercised  bv  a 
few  upon  the  mass,  which  became  a  general  self- 
hypnotism,  until  the  emotion  spread  like  hysterics 
in  a  girls'  boarding  school.  Then  war  came  with 
its  fearful  actualities,  leaving  the  people  no  time 
for  vagaries,  bogies,  hysterics.  War,  the  real 
thing!  War,  that  excellent  thing  which  sweeps 
away  the  cobwebs  for  a  period,  which  breeds  a 
generation  or  so  of  clear-thinking,  courageous 
men — ^the  effect  of  which  is  felt  after  that  imme- 
diate  period    of    desolation   and    disorganization 


42  Old  New  England  Churches 

which  follows  war,  is  over;  felt  at  the  time  when 
the  war  generation  begins  to  mature!  , 

Lathrop  preached  from  this  pulpit:  "Those 
principles  which  justify  rulers  in  making  war  upon 
rebellious  subjects  justify  the  people  in  making  war 
upon  rebellious  rulers.''  These  things  from  the 
Second  Church  pulpit  nearly  created  sympathy 
for  the  British  when  they  pulled  down  that  "  nest 
of  traitors"  at  their  earliest  convenience.  Joys 
are  always  reactionary  and  this  act  of  a  British 
General  did  not  detract  from  the  exceedingly  good 
time  the  people  of  Second  Church  had  on  that 
day  when  Howe  marched  out  of  and  Washing- 
ton marched  into  Boston. 

After  this  house  was  demolished,  the  people  of 
Second  Church  were  invited  to  worship  with  the 
society  of  the  New  Brick — child  of  the  Second 
Church!  Dr.  Lathrop  then  preached  to  the  united 
people. 

Probably  the  first  crusade  against  intemperance, 
which  was  so  great  a  curse  of  the  colonies,  was 
undertaken  in  this  pulpit  by  Henry  Ware.  It  was 
he  who  had  the  courage  to  write  against  the  evil, 
to  preach  against  it,  and  who  by  reason  of  his 
precedence  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  preacher,  gave  more 
impetus  to  the  movement  than  could  any  organi- 


{ 

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Aw 

1 

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Li 

1           )) 

i 

■ 

•t  lARlt: ss 

UlmInshipin(; 

•  •♦•••         • .  • 
•••    ••       •• 

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1      RalphWaldo 
1        Emerson 

•minister' 
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fi^^J^^^z^^m^^^ 

Photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge 
BUST  OF  EMERSON  WHICH  IS  IN  THE  SECOND  CHURCH 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Alass.  43 

sation  against  rum  drinking  then  have  given. 
Channing  was  talking  at  this  time,  and  the  spirit 
of  humanity  and  dignity  was  getting  the  upper 
hand  of  the  old  intemperance  of  feeling  by 
which  the  Puritan  had  so  long  dominated.  Then 
after  Mr.  Ware,  came  "  the  tall,  spare  young  man 
with  the  sweet,  mild  face" — Emerson.  Mr. 
Van  Ness  discusses  this  accident  of  Emerson  in  the 
Second  Church  pulpit  beautifully  and  interestingly. 
The  conventional  Second  Church  and  the  free, 
strong-thinking,  vital  Emerson!  Mr.  Van  Ness 
repudiates  the  thought  that  he  came  to  the  pulpit 
by  mere  chance,  any  more  than  John  Lathrop 
came  by  chance  sixty  years  before.  He  puts  it, 
**  No ;  like  draws  like,  whether  among  the  atoms, 
the  stars,  or  among  men."  And  in  witnessing 
the  result  of  Emerson  in  the  Second  Church  we 
are  inclined  to  think  Mr.  Van  Ness  is  right.  But 
could  the  result  of  Emerson  in  relation  to  any- 
thing have  been  other  than  luminant  ? 

Mr.  Van  Ness  plays  again  and  again  upon  the 
words  of  the  covenant: 

"  'Being  called  of  God,  I  freely  do  this  thing.' 
That  same  phrase,  doubtless,  Increase  Mather 
would  have  used  if  asked  what  prompted  him 
to  speak  so  heroically  at  the  town   meeting.     It 


44  Old  New  England  Churches 

is  the  initial  impulse  given  to  the  church  by  its 
founders,  which,  continuing  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  led  Emerson  to  stand  forth  in  moral 
bravery  and  plead  for  freedom  of  spirit  instead 
of  slavish  adhesion  to  form.  'Being  called  of 
God  to  do  this  thing ! '  What  better  reason  coul.d 
Emerson  have  given  for  his  action?" 

Mr.  Van  Ness  is  discussing  the  happening  of  Mr. 
Emerson  into  the  Second  Church  from  the  es- 
sentially theological  viewpoint,  as  we  should  ex- 
pect him  to  do,  but  even  the  unregenerate  is  in- 
clined to  enter  into  this  God-logic  with  Mr.  Van 
Ness,  when  he  thinks  of  Emerson,  the  great,  free 
soul!  Mr.  Van  Ness  points  out  that  the  reason 
for  the  severance  of  the  relations  between  Emer- 
son and  the  Second  Church  was  not  a  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  how  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be 
celebrated  but  a  conflict  between  formalism  and 
freedom:  "  'I  thought  to  carry  them  with  me,' 
Emerson  acknowledged  in  after  years  in  speaking 
of  his  views,  *I  thought  to  carry  them  with  me.'  " 
Commenting  on  this  Van  Ness  writes: 

"  Ah,  Emerson  would  have  known  better  had  he 
been  forty-nine  instead  of  twenty-nine.  Youth 
does  not  and  cannot  appreciate  at  its  full  worth 
the  power  of  memories,  of  sentiment,  of  association. 
It  was  this  power  which  defeated  him  when  the 
vote  was  taken,  not  the  radicalism  of  his  views. 


THE  MINISTER'S  WINDOW,  SECOND  CHURCH,  BOSTON 


Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  45 

"The  Second  Church  never  stood  for  creed 
or  dogma.  It  has  never  had  in  its  pulpit  the 
founder  of  any  logical  system  of  theology. 

"A  Jonathan  Edwards,  aBushnell,  a  Dr.  Palfry, 
even  a  Channing  could  not  well  have  been  devel- 
oped in  its  atmosphere.  The  initial  impulse 
of  the  church,  as  was  said  before,  was  not  theo- 
logical, but  practical.  The  organisation  crystal- 
lised around  a  contract  or  covenant,  not  around 
a  creed  or  statement  of  faith.  The  Second  Church 
is  now  classified  as  Unitarian,  yet  its  original 
covenant  has  never  been  altered  or  erased  from 
the  membership  book.  Just  when  the  change 
in  thought  took  place,  no  one  can  determine" 

— and  no  one  cares  to  determine  who  is  blinded 
by  the  flash  of  history  illumined  by  the  Second 
Church, 


KING'S  CHAPEL,  BOSTON,  MASS, 


CHAPTER  III 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Massachusetts 

KING'S  CHAPEL  was  the  first  Episcopalian 
church  in  New  England.  Unlike  the 
church  of  the  Puritans  it  was  a  missionary 
enterprise  pure  and  simple;  hence  established 
and  peopled  by  those  whose  sole  purpose  was 
the  worship  of  God  and  the  propagation  of 
the  Gospel  as  they  understood  it.  Their  un- 
derstanding of  it  was  much  simpler  than  that 
of  the  Puritans  who  had  tried  so  hard  to  achieve 
simplicity,  that  their  religion  had  become  a  very 
complicated  thing  indeed.  In  pointing  out  the 
extreme  rottenness  of  the  Church  of  England  at 
that  time  in  its  own  country,  the  Rev.  Howard 
N.  Brown,  of  King's  Chapel  reminds  us  how  re- 
action must  follow  extreme  conditions;  and  how 
the  Puritan's  intolerance  of  anjrthing  that  stood 
for  the  institution  which  had  persecuted  him  was 
an  inevitable  result  of  the  Church  of  England's 
work.  He  also  reminds  us  that  the  Puritans 
were  unable  to  recognise  in  an  emigration  from 

49 


5©  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  English  Church  to  this  country  a  possible  sin- 
cerity of  religious  purpose,  a  purity  of  motive  in 
people  who  had  ventured  even  as  the  Puritans  had. 
Until  then  all  the  action  had  been  in  England 
and  taken  by  the  Established  Church;  the  re- 
action now  felt  in  America  and  by  the  Estab- 
lished Church  indicated  a  vindictiveness  which 
was  deplorable  but  perhaps  the  most  human 
thing  in  Puritanism.  The  real  objection  to  this 
state  of  Puritan  affairs  is  that  too  much  was  laid 
to  the  Lord.  "Vengeance  is  mine!" — ^the  Puri- 
tans considered  themselves  the  instrument  and 
were  glad  to  be  chosen  for  the  work.  In  preaching 
of  God  as  a  God  of  vengeance  and  without 
mercy,  they  simply  adapted  their  Deity  to  their 
own  inclinations. 

The  missionary  church  sought  a  pied  a  terre 
in  the  New  World  which  it  might  call  its  own, 
but  this  was  for  a  long  time  denied  it.  Andros, 
the  execrated,  was  the  Church  of  England's 
saviour  at  that  time,  and  partly  as  a  consequence 
he  is  needlessly  misrepresented  to  the  schoolboy 
of  to-day.  One  hundred  years  after  it  becomes 
possible  to  regard  any  occurrence  that  could 
possibly  have  taken  place,  without  prejudice, 
though  not  unemotionally. 


"'  ^' "  "■  ^--^'  ^^^'^^^jm^: 


p.«.*SB^'r?^;?f3;:^3!r 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  51 

In  the  days  when  events  moved  slowly,  the 
world  may  have  needed  a  thousand  years  in  which 
to  weigh  and  forgive  offences;  but  to-day  a  hun- 
dred years  can  make  and  unmake  nations.  A 
city  may  be  wiped  out  to-day  and  to-morrow  be 
regarded  tranquilly  as  ancient  history.  A  new 
world  blossoms  in  a  desert  and  next  week  we  have 
ceased  to  be  surprised.  A  hundred  years  should 
have  been  time  enough  for  Americans  who  have 
crowded  several  centuries  into  one,  to  think  upon 
the  conditions  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
judiciously  and  without  prejudice;  to  weigh 
men  and  events  with  great  precision,  in  the 
balance  with  American  emotions.  But  this  has 
not  been  done;  or  if  it  has  it  is  time  for  school- 
board  energy  to  censor  the  text-book  list  and 
expunge  from  it  those  treatises  bound  to  offend 
the  fair-minded. 

Eugene  Sue  says  somewhere,  that  the  man  who 
lacks  enthusiasm  is  fit  for  treasons,  stratagems, 
and  spoils— of  course  not  using  Shakespearian 
phrase.  Even  French  energy  has  hardly  over- 
stepped the  bounds  of  truth  in  making  the  state- 
ment; but  fairmindedness  does  not  imply  a  lack 
of  enthusiasm  for  our  own  exploits,  nor  does  it 
forbid  us  to  leave  oiir  enemies  still  clothed  with  a 


52  Old  New  England  Churches 

rag  of  character  while  we  are  putting  on  our 
ermine.  It  does  not  dignify  the  victor's  cause 
nor  magnify  his  victory  to  have  him  beHttle 
his  adversary. 

There  are  certain  names,  mostly  British,  which 
the  schoolboy  is  taught  to  regard  as  the  epitome 
of  all  that  is  vile,  while  it  would  seem  to  any  fairly 
intelligent  person  that  our  erstwhile  enemies  had 
a  pretty  decent  credit  account  of  character;  that 
even  in  the  eighteenth  century,  they  were  human 
beings  who  stood  for  their  prerogative  to  think 
for  themselves  and  to  enslave  others  even  as  we 
were  doing. 

In  Andros  we  had  a  man  attending  to  his 
business,  and  in  an  exceedingly  one-sided  fight 
we  punished  him  and  all  of  his.  Our  colossal 
triumph  over  such  colossal  odds  might  by  this 
time  excuse  in  us  a  moderate  and  even  generous 
regard  for  those  past  events  and  people. 

Andros  did  not  persecute  the  Puritans  in  the 
exercise  of  his  abominated  Church  of  England 
religion,  but  he  did  commit  an  offence  which  to- 
day seems  so  grave  that  it  colours  a  good  deal 
of  the  history  of  colonial  times,  as  even  now 
recorded.  Andros's  interference  with  Puritan 
hospitality  sealed  his  fate,   wrote  his  American 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  53 

epitaph,  and  delivered  him  over  to  schoolboy 
criticism  till  the  crack  of  Puritan  doom.  Andros 
compelled  the  Old  South  Church  to  open  its  doors 
to  worshippers  not  of  our  Heavenly  set:  worship- 
pers who  as  yet  on  this  alien  soil  had  committed 
no  act  of  intolerance  or  wrong  to  disfranchise 
them  when  the  vote  of  humanity  should  come  to 
be  cast.  The  new-comers  were  greatly  in  the 
minority  and  the  Puritans  had  a  beautiful  oppor- 
tunity to  apply  a  Christian  principle,  and  to  do 
unto  the  English  Church  even  as  the  Puritans 
would  have  had  that  Church  do  unto  it,  some  time 
before  this.  But  the  opportunity  was  missed. 
And  what  the  Puritans  refused  to  do  in  common 
courtesy  and  brotherhood,  they  were  roughly 
compelled  to  do  by  Andros.  A  refusal  to  let  the 
Episcopalians  hold  their  service  in  the  meeting 
house  brought  a  demand  from  Andros  to  hand 
over  that  property  for  the  purpose.  The  refusal 
of  this  demand  was  necessary,  expedient;  but 
the  necessity  for  it  might  have  been  avoided  if  a 
little  diplomatic  recognition  of  the  stranger  within 
the  gates  had  been  made. 

It  would  make  nicer  history  if  we  could  record 
a  superhuman  foresight  on  the  part  of  our  ances- 
tors; but  since  they  were  simply  human  in  spite  of 


54  Old  New  England  Churches 

being  Puritan,  and  could  see  only  the  political 
aspect  of  the  case,  there  is  nothing  for  us  but  to 
rejoice  in  our  superior  hindsight  and  modestly 
to  approve  of  the  men  who  made  and  fought  the 
Revolution.  They  had  no  time  to  spare  for  latter- 
day  elegancies  of  war.  While  they  hilled  up  the 
potatoes  with  one  hand  and  fought  with  the  other, 
they  had  to  make  the  people  go  to  meeting  with 
both  right  along. 

The  King's  Chapel  folk  held  their  services  in 
the  Old  South  for  some  time,  and  having  got  per- 
mission by  force  they  grinned  and  made  the  most 
of  it,  till  Judge  Sewall  was  minded  to  write  quite 
tearfully: 

"Last  sabbath  day,  March  27,  Govr.  and  his 
retinue  met  in  our  Meetingh.  at  eleven:  broke  off 
half  past  two,  bee.  of  ye  sacrement  and  Mr.  Clark's 
long  sermon,  though  we  were  appointed  to  come 
half  past  one;  so  'twas  a  sad  sight  to  see  how 
full  ye  street  was  with  people  gazing  and  moving 
to  and  fro,  bee.  had  no  entrance  into  ye  house." 

If  that  tremendous  old  man  could  to-day  witness 
his  grief  of  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  it 
would  doubtless  amuse  him — nobody  could  see 
both  sides  of  a  question  better  than  he,  after  he 
got  round  to  it. 

The  royal  governors  sat  in  the  Old  South  under 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  55 

Ratcliffe,  and  all  the  while  the  King's  Chapel  folk 
were  trying  to  induce  somebody  to  sell  them  a 
little  ground  for  their  building  and  at  last  the 
Governor  had  again  to  interfere.  He  set  aside  a 
comer  of  the  burial  ground  for  their  use,  and 
immediately  King's  Chapel  began  to  rise.  It 
was  ready  in  1689.  Apropos  of  nothing  imme- 
diate, there  is  a  very  clear  statement  which 
should  be  quoted  from  Foote's  "Annals of  King's 
Chapel": 

"  New  England  has  perhaps  never  quite  appre- 
ciated its  obligation  to  Archbishop  Laud.  It 
was  his  over-mastering  hate  of  nonconformity, 
it  was  the  vigilance  and  vigour  and  consecrated 
cruelty  with  which  he  scoured  his  own  diocese 
and  afterward  all  England,  and  hunted  out  the 
ministers  who  were  committing  the  unpardon- 
able sin  of  dissent,  that  conferred  upon  the  prin- 
cipal colonies  of  New  England  their  ablest  and 
noblest  men.  Indeed  without  Laud,  those  col- 
onies perhaps  never  would  have  had  an  existence." 

It  was  that  intolerance,  practised  here  by  the 
Puritans  and  in  England  by  Laud,  which  was 
one  cause  of  peopling  this  country  with  men  who 
for  vigour  and  tenacity  never  have  been 
equalled. 

It  was  Ratcliffe  who  bore  the  burden  and  heat 
of  the  first  day  of  Episcopalianism  in  America; 


56  Old  New  England  Churches 

and  it  was  the  son  of  a  Baptist  minister  who 
succeeded  him — the  Rev.  Samuel  Myles. 

The  Chapel  was  furnished  at  the  time  by  King 
William  III,  and  later  by  King  George  III.  The 
famous  Brattle  organ,  given  by  Thomas  Brattle, 
belonged  to  this  church  before  it  found  its  abiding 
place  in  Portsmouth.  After  Myles,  came  the 
Rev.  Roger  Price,  and  during  his  induction  into 
office  there  occurred  a  Church  of  England  cere- 
mony which  was  amusing.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Howard 
Brown  mentions  this  in  a  sketch  of  King's  Chapel, 
and  says  that  after  Price's 

"credentials  had  been  read  in  church,  all  the 
people  present  'went  out  of  the  church,  the  church 
wardens  at  the  door  delivering  the  key  of  the 
church  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Price,  who,  locking  himself 
in  the  church,  tolled  the  bell,  and  then  unlocked 
the  door  of  the  church,  receiving  the  church  war- 
dens and  vestrymen  into  the  church  again,  who 
wished  him  joy  upon  his  having  the  church.'  " 

After  Price  came  the  Rev.  Henry  Caner.  His 
first  duty  was  to  forward  the  erection  of  King's 
Chapel  as  it  now  stands,  and  the  comer  stone 
was  laid  in  1749.  In  connection  with  Caner  we 
have  another  tragi-humourous  anecdote.  Viewed 
within  a  month  after  its  occurrence  it  would 
brand  the  Rev.  Mr.  Caner  as  a  robber  of  the  first 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  57 

magnitude,  because  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  stole 
the  plate  and  the  church  records;  but  with  a 
hundred  years'  perspective  we  think  with  not  a 
little  tender  sympathy  of  an  act  which  demon- 
strated the  conscientious  agonisings  of  a  truly 
good  man.  When  Caner  found  the  British  evacuat- 
ing Boston,  his  Mother  Country  with  which  he 
sympathised  beaten,  he  cast  his  lot  with  the 
vanquished,  and  with  eighteen  other  clergymen 
he  sailed  back  to  England  with  the  fleet.  It 
was  then  that  he  took  with  him  the  church  plate. 
In  all  probability  he  felt  that  he  was  serving  God 
in  keeping  the  plate  from  falling  into  the  vandal's 
hands — ^we  being  the  vandal.  No  one  knows 
where  this  plate  is  now,  but  the  records  came 
back.  It  is  supposed  that  the  communion  ser- 
vice was  distributed  among  the  other  churches 
in  America  by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel. 

The  only  Episcopalian  minister  left  in  Boston 
was  the  assistant  minister  of  Trinity,  and  he 
also  served  the  congregation  of  King's  Chapel 
at  this  time.  The  congregation  went  over  to 
Trinity  and,  taking  advantage  of  a  glorious  oppor- 
tunity, it  opened  its  own  doors  to  the  Old  South 
Church,  whose  building  had  been  ruined  by  the 


58  Old  New  England  Churches 

British.  Dr.  Warren  of  Bunker  Hill  fame  was 
buried  from  King's  Chapel  under  these  circum- 
stances. The  Old  South  was  doubtless  then 
more  appreciative  than  it  had  been  hospitable 
at  the  time  when  the  King's  Chapel  congregation 
sought  to  worship  in  its  building. 

In  1782  occurred  an  incident,  notable  not  in 
itself  but  in  its  bearing  upon  large  events.  A 
young  man,  Mr.  James  Freeman,  served  the  con- 
gregation as  a  lay  reader  and  he  made  his  way 
so  completely  into  the  hearts  of  the  people  that 
they  determined  to  have  him  for  their  rector; 
but  he  had  never  been  ordained.  Now  when 
Dr.  Caner  and  the  eighteen  other  clergymen 
sailed  away,  it  rid  the  church  of  the  incubus  of 
strict  confonnity  and  rigidity  of  administration. 
It  left,  in  short,  the  very  flower  of  clerical  intellect 
to  serve  and  the  flower  of  the  congregation  to 
profit.  Mr.  James  Freeman  was  so  liberal,  so 
entirely  human  in  his  views  that  he  precisely 
suited  the  people  to  whom  he  ministered — a 
fact  which  in  itself  made  him  quite  unsuited  to 
ordination  if  he  must  receive  it  at  the  hands  of 
the  Mother  Church.  Ordination  was  refused  him 
from  that  source,  and  perhaps  an  immediate 
cause  of  the  refusal  was  that  under  his  guidance 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  59 

King's  Chapel  people  had  become  so  liberal  that 
they  altered  their  prayer  book  so  as  to  leave  out 
all  reference  to  the  Trinity.  Thus  without  know- 
ing it,  King's  Chapel  was  bom  again;  and  the 
second  time,  Unitarian.  The  Chapel  did  not 
realise  that  its  act  would  make  a  breach  between 
it  and  other  Episcopalian  churches,  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  breach  was  so  great  that  no 
bishop  whomsoever  would  ordain  their  favourite 
minister.  In  this  situation,  King's  Chapel,  which 
was  quite  sufficient  unto  itself,  severed  for  good 
and  all  its  relations  with  British  ecclesiastical 
authority,  and  immediately  proceeded  to  ordain 
its  own  minister. 

Now,  again,  we  have  a  shining  example  of  re- 
action; for  not  only  did  it  ordain  its  own  minister, 
but  from  that  day  to  this  it  has  absolutely  re- 
fused to  let  any  other  church  have  any  part  in 
the    installation    of    its    preachers. 

Washington,  who  was  at  the  time  our  president, 
attended  a  concert  in  King's  Chapel — ^Washington 
in  the  hated  Church  of  England,  yet  our  Best  Be- 
loved from  the  hour  when  we  began  to  mean 
anything  to  ourselves!  This  certainly  helps  to 
prove  that  the  religion  of  the  Puritans  was, 
after  all,  only  skin  deep,  that  this  religion  was 


6o  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  vehicle,  the  occasion  for  an  obstinate  set  of 
men  incHned  to  cruelty  because  of  the  persecu- 
tions which  they  in  turn  had  endured,  to  exercise 
a  complete  if  temporary  ascendency  over  all  who 
were  within  their  gates.  Their  religion  was  simply 
an  exhibition  of  the  temperamental  principles 
of  their  character.  They  were  emotionally  ele- 
mental, but  they  jealously  guarded  power  and 
precedence  with  an  exceedingly  well  developed 
sense  of  worldly  values.  If  their  religion  had  been 
profounder  than  their  characters,  there  would 
have  been  no  United  States.  As  it  was,  it  was 
a  superficiality.  Superficialities  may  do  a  deal 
of  harm  before  they  are  suppressed  or  atrophied, 
but  we  can  regard  all  things  of  those  times 
tolerantly  except  the  intolerance;  and  even  if 
we  cannot  tolerate  that,  we  can  see  a  reason  for 
its  having  been. 

Perhaps  nothing  better  illustrates  the  large 
lordliness  of  these  New  England  people  than  the 
claim  of  William  Blackstone,  who  was  a  clergy- 
man. He  "claimed  the  whole  peninsula  upon 
which  Boston  is  built,  because  he  was  the  first 
that  slept  upon  it."  But  we  must  remember 
that  it  was  a  large  country  which  was  the  occasion 
of  such  large  ideas !     That  one  of  a  very  few  thou- 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  6i 

sand  people  should  choose  the  whole  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  his  bedroom  would  not  have  been  so 
erratic  and  egotistical  a  thing  as  might  appear. 
If  these  men  had  only  realised  that  we  ran  clear 
through  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  how  much  of 
us  there  was  north  and  south,  doubtless  each 
one  of  them  would  have  taken  a  large  fraction  of 
the  globe  for  his  oWn  exclusive  dwelling  place. 
At  that  period  of  our  history,  as  well  as  now,  we 
had  no  sort  of  notion  that  any  other  people  existed, 
or  possibly  might  exist.  Who  doubts  that  we 
have  at  all  times  known  ourselves  to  be  the  Lord's 
anointed ! 

There  is  something  really  very  beautiful  m  the 
farewell  to  England  of  those  Church  of  England 
emigrants  who  were  to  have  their  place  among 
the  strong  and  wise  of  our  country.  When  they 
had  sailed  from  the  sight  of  Land's  End  they 
had  said,  Higginson  being  their  spokesman: 

"  We  will  not  say,  as  the  Separatists  are  wont  to 
say,  on  their  leaving  England,  'Farewell,  Babylon! 
Farewell,  Rome!'  but  we  will  say,  'Farewell, 
dear  England,  and  all  the  Christian  friends  there!' 
We  do  not  go  to  New  England  as  Separatists 
from  the  Church  of  England  though  we  cannot 
but  separate  from  the  corruptions  in  it;  but  we 
go  to  practise  the  positive  part  of  the    church 


62  Old  New  England  Churches 

reformation,  and  propagate  the  Church  in  Amer- 
ica." 

There  was  a  universaUty  of  feeling,  sympathy, 
and  gentleness  of  purpose  in  this  attitude  of  the 
Episcopal  emigrants,  which  was  sometimes  re- 
flected in  a  very  local  and  personal  regard  felt 
by  the  different  Puritan  settlements  for  each  other. 
In  Boston  all  the  rigours  of  Sabbath  day  ob- 
servance seem  to  have  been  centred.  Foote 
writes   of  this  most   conprehensively: 

"  The  Lord's-day  began  at  sunset  on  Saturday. 
Through  its  hours  no  one  was  permitted  to  leave 
or  enter  the  town,  the  gates  on  the  'Neck'  being 
shut  and  the  ferry  watched,  while  throughout 
the  country  travelling  was  strictly  prevented. 
Nor  was  it  allowed  'even  in  the  hottest  days  of 
summer,  to  take  the  air  on  the  Common'  or  on 
the  wharves  adjacent  to  the  houses;  and  fine 
and  imprisonment  awaited  those  who,  meeting 
in  the  street  and  conversing  there,  did  not  dis- 
perse at  the  first  notice.  In  1767  the  Court 
ordered  that  any  person  making  a  noise  during 
the  day,  or  misbehaving  in  the  meeting  house, 
should  be  'put  in  a  cage,  to  be  set  up  in  the  market 
place,'  and  be  kept  there  and  examined  and  piui- 
ished." 

But  this  theocracy  could  not  be  long  maintained; 
its  life  of  fifty  years  even  was  extraordinary; 
because  after  all  there  was  a  very  heterogeneous 


■'■■SIBS'K-'^-WSfSfcf 


Photograph  by  E.  E.  Soderlwllz,  West  Gouldsboro 
DETAIL  OF  PULPIT,  KING'S  CHAPEL.  BOSTON,  M.\SSACHUSETTS 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  63 

mass    in   this    country,    and    individual    opinion 
speaks  all  the  time,  even  if  under  its  breath. 

Christmas  f^tes,  of  course,  had  been  forbidden 
from  the  start;  but  with  the  New  England 
Episcopal  church  camping  in  a  comer  of  the  Puri- 
tan burying  ground,  the  former  Christmas  cus- 
toms quivered  an  eyelid  and  more  or  less  awoke. 
Judge  Sewall  who  wrote  about  everything  and 
anything  from  the  very  bottom  of  his  soul,  noted 
in  his  diary  in  1685: 

**  Xr,  2  5 ,  Friday.  Carts  come  to  town,  and  Shops 
open  as  usual:  some  people  observe  ye  day: 
but  are  vex'd  I  believe  that  ye  Body  of  ye  People 
profane  it,  and  blessed  be  God  no  authority  yet 
to  compell  them  to  keep  it." 

And  also  he  wrote  earlier  than  this: 

"  Mr.  Randolph  and  his  new  wife  set  in  Mr. 
Joycliffe's  pue  (in  the  South  Church) ;  and  Mrs. 
Randolph  is  observed  to  make  a  curtsy  at  Mr. 
Willard's  naming  Jesus,   even  in  Prayer-Time." 

Thus  small  things  were  bound  to  leave  a  sign. 

At  the  time  Ratcliffe  came  here  with  the  char- 
ter, these  people  who  had  been  for  fifty  years 
without  an  exhibition  of  the  Episcopalian  forms 
of  worship  regarded  them  very  much  as  they 
would  regard  a  circus.  Dunton  describes  the 
impression  made: 


64  Old  New  England  Churches 

"  Mr.  Ratcliffe  was  the  parson  that  came  over  with 
the  charter,  who  was  a  very  Excellent  Preacher, 
whose  Matter  was  good,  and  the  dress  in  which 
he  put  it  Extraordinary,  he  being  as  well  an  orator 
as  a  preacher.  The  next  Sunday  after  he  landed 
he  preach' d  in  the  Town-house,  and  read  common 
Prayer  in  his  Surplice,  which  was  so  great  a 
novelty  to  the  Bostonians  that  he  had  a  very 
large  audiance;  I  myself  happening  to  go  thither 
for  one,  it  was  told  about  Town  as  a  piece  of 
Wonder,  That  Dr.  Anneslay's  Son-in-law  was 
turned  apostate;  So  little  Charity  have  some 
men  in  new  England  for  all  that  have  larger 
Charity  than  themselves." 

The  Puritans  saw  in  this  new  church  a  political 
machine,  and  such  it  was.  Beyond  all  question 
it  was  so  designed  by  the  politicians,  but  its 
congregation  was  by  no  means  made  up  of  them 
but  of  as  staunch  Americans-by-adoption,  as 
were  the  Puritans.  We  have  plenty  of  evidence 
of  that  in  their  deeds.  The  fact  that  King's 
Chapel  broke  away  absolutely  even  from  the 
ecclesiastical  rule  of  England  and  set  up  shop 
for  itself,  when  there  came  to  be  a  single  point 
of  difference,  proves  that  the  society  was  all  for 
the  New  World  and  naught  for  the  Old.  What- 
ever the  purpose  of  the  Church  and  State  in  En- 
gland  in  establishing  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
America,  it  was  bound  to  miscarry  whenever  it 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  65 

should  become  inimical  to  colonial  independence 
of  action.  Does  not  one  of  those  missionary 
churches  persistently  claim  the  Paul  Revere 
lights,  so  valued  was  the  glory  of  the  Revolution 
by  those  who  in  any  way  belonged  to  the  right 
side  of  it? 

The  Puritan  idea  tended  to  make  men  slaves 
of  a  Theocracy,  but  the  human  idea  came  first 
and  it  prevailed  when  the  occasion  arose  for  action. 
In  reading  the  history  of  that  time  one  is  inclined 
superficially  to  believe  that  the  Puritan  religion 
filled  all  space,  but  this  was  not  so.  As  long  as 
nothing  larger  than  this  fetich  occupied  the  Puri- 
tans' minds  they  clung  to  it.  They  were  a  people 
who  found  it  constitutionally  necessary  to  in- 
volve themselves.  Our  civilisation  is  founded 
upon  the  most  emotional  period  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Our  emotions  happened  to  find 
an  outlet  for  the  space  of  a  hundred  years  or  more 
in  a  religion,  at  the  end  of  which  time  came  war 
— an  opportunity  even  more  to  our  liking. 

We  have  grown  to  associate  emotion  with 
decadence — Roman  orgies  or  Oriental  fanati- 
cism; mercurialism  and  temperament,  with 
Gallic  high-falutin;  yet  when  we  contemplate 
such  of  its  phases  we  are  regarding  emotion  in  its 


66  Old  New  England  Churches 

least  serious  aspect.  There  has  never  been  any- 
thing to  compare  with  the  volcanic  emotional 
system  of  our  forefathers  in  this  country.  A 
people  whose  imagination  enabled  them  to  see 
the  end  before  most  people  would  have  grasped 
the  beginning;  seeing  the  end,  they  lived  up 
to  it  every  minute,  and  had  little  time  to 
loose  their  emotions  upon  trivialities.  We  have 
never  been  known  either  as  great  weepers  or  as  an 
exceptionally  laughter-loving  folk,  but  we  under- 
stand both  laughter  and  tears,  and  at  the  same 
time  we  furnish  more  material  for  both  than  any 
other  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

In  the  Dutch  we  find  a  people  whose  heroism 
was  comparable  with  the  heroism  of  the  American 
colonists;  but  to  us  it  loses  slightly  because  of 
Dutch  phlegmaticism.  When  the  Dutch  declared 
that  when  they  had  eaten  one  arm  they  still 
would  fight  with  the  other,  we  cannot  help  feeling 
that  the  Dutch  would  have  minded  both  the 
feast  and  the  fight  somewhat  less  than  we  would 
have  done.  A  people  of  an  extraordinarily 
fine,  nervous  temper  are  a  more  remarkable  ex- 
hibition in  the  arena  than  are  they  who  while 
being  killed  do  not  object  to  killing. 

We  belong  rather  to  the  deliberate  fighters  than 


01  biti  ii* 


Phdograph  by  E.  E.  SoderkoUt,  West  Gotddshoro 
A  PART  OF  THE  DETAIL  OF  KING'S  CHAPEL 
Whose  comer-stone  was  laid  in  1749  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Caner,  who  subsequently  stole  the  communion  sei-vicc 

and  the  church  records 


6S  Old  New  England  Ckurcnes 

Henry  Wilder  Foote  has  said  that  "  there  was  a 
time  when  it  would  have  been  thought  unpatriotic 
for  us  not  to  be  ashamed  of  the  fact  that  King 
George's  officials  and  the  tory  gentry  went  here 
to  church."  The  patriotism  of  no  society  stood 
the  test  better  tEan  did  that  of  King's  Chapel. 
Its  first  clergyman  after  the  'war,  had  been  a  war 
prisoner  in  a  British  receiving  ship.  These  people 
found  themselves  in  a  most  trying  and  difficult 
position;  they  were  actively  opposing  England,  yet 
they  were  not  unnaturally  suspected  by  the 
colonists,  since  they  stood  for  the  hated  Church. 
They  seem  to  have  gained  an  enemy  at  home 
and  made  no  friend  abroad,  and  for  a  time  it 
required  heroism  indeed  to  support  this  situa- 
tion. 

King's  Chapel  still  has  its  extraordinary  furni- 
ture given  it  by  him  who  was  once  its  king. 
One  row  of  pipes  is  left  of  that  organ  which  Handel 
himself  doubtless  chose.  The  bill  of  lading  of 
the  organ  is  preserved.  It  reads  thus:  "  Shipped 
by  the  grace  of  God  in  good  order  and  well  con- 
ditioned, etc. "and  ends  with  "Amen."  Many 
other  relics  of  that  time  are  as  they  were  when 
they  first  came  into  the  possession  of  King's 
Chapel.    The  building  itself  being  pre-revolutionary 


PItotograpk  by  E.  E.  Soderhollz.  Boston 
IN  THE  GALLERY  OF  KING'S  CHAPEL,  BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 
The  church  from  which  Caner  stole  the  communion  service 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  69 

a  volume  of  romantic  incidents  might  be  built 
of  material  provided  by  it. 

The  Bible  in  use  to-day  was  the  gift  of  the 
King.  The  communion  rail  was  sent  to  King's 
Chapel  from  England.  When  the  organ  was 
put  in,  the  Boston  Gazette  and  Country  Journal, 
in  its  issue  of  August  30,  1756,  announced: 

"  We  hear  that  the  organ  that  lately  arrived  from 
London  by  Captain  Farr  for  King's  Chapel  in 
this  town  will  be  opened  on  Thursday  next  in  the 
afternoon,  and  that  said  organ  (which  contains 
a  variety  of  curious  stops  never  yet  heard  of  in 
these  parts)  is  esteemed  by  the  most  eminent 
masters  in  England  to  be  equal,  if  not  superior, 
to  any  of  the  same  size  in  Europe.  There  will 
be  a  sermon  suitable  to  the  occasion.  Prayer 
to  begin  at  four  o'clock." 

Three  of  the  four  royal  governors  of  revo- 
lutionary times  sat  in  this  church,  the  governor's 
pew  being  resplendent,  canopied,  and  double  the 
size  of  the  others.  The  church  plate  which  Caner 
took  away  was  given  by  the  King. 

Not  far  from  King's  Chapel  was  the  famous 
"liberty  tree."  On  it  were  hung  in  effigy  those 
who  were  unpopular  in  the  community.  It 
blossomed  mostly  with  Tories.  There  was  a 
deal  of  gorgeousness  to  be  seen  in  and  about  this 
old  church  just  before  the  Revolution.     But  after 


7©  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  war  when  King's  Chapel  lost  its  Episcopalian 
identity  to  a  large  extent  and  the  transition  to 
Unitarianism  came  like  a  thief  in  the  night — the 
church  itself  hardly  knowing  how — there  was 
to  be  seen  less  of  ruffled  sleeve  and  powdered 
wig,  of  velvets  and  chariots  and  liveries.  Since 
1767  it  had  been  necessary  for  the  British  troops 
to  camp  with  us  to  enforce  the  Tea  Act,  and  for 
nine  years  Boston  Common  had  been  their  ground. 
During  that  time  King's  Chapel  had  been  the 
scene  of  a  deal  of  red  uniform  and  gold  lace  which 
seemed,  when  the  crisis  came,  to  have  entered 
into  King's  Chapel  sentiments  not  one  whit. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Wilder  Foote  said  in  a  me- 
morial sermon: 

"The  Rev.  Mr.  Fayerweather  of  Narragansett, 
records  in  his  diary  that  he  preached  in  King's 
Chapel,  Boston,  before  General  Gage  and  his 
officers,  and  a  very  numerous  and  polite  assembly, 
from  the  text,  'Be  kindly  affectioned  one  toward 
another  with  brotherly  love.'  " 

Then  Foote  adds,  "The  commentary  was  written 
at  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill."  A  good  many 
who  sat  in  King's  Chapel  doubtless  ornamented 
in  effigy  the  "liberty  tree"  over  on  Washington 
street.  We  know  that  on  "Gunpowder  plot" 
day   one   of   the   congregation,    Charles   Paxton, 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Mass.  71 

was  hanged  there  in  effigy  "between  the  figures 
of  the  devil  and  the  Pope,"  and  labelled,  "Every 
man's  humble  servant  but  no  man's  friend." 
Another  family,  that  of  Dr.  Sylvester  Gardner, 
sat  in  pews  Nos.  7  and  8,  and  Dr.  Gardner  was 
Senior  Warden  in  King's  Chapel  for  twenty  years. 
He  was  a  rich  and  respected  man  but  was  forced 
to  abandon  his  home  in  his  seventieth  year  be- 
cause the  young  wife  he  had  married  had  so  far 
compromised  him  with  the  royal  party  that  he 
could  no  longer  remain.  He  went  against  his 
will,  and  so  greatly  did  he  love  his  country  that 
he  gave  to  it  his  valuable  stock — "medicines 
and  drugs — ^for  Washington's  army  to  use." 
Later  the  state  of  Massachusetts  rewarded  the 
doctor  by  giving  him  tickets  in  the  state  land 
lottery  in  consequence  of  which  his  heirs  received 
six  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Washington  County, 
Maine. 

There  are  many  fascinating  stories  of  loyalists 
who  fled  voluntarily  or  who  were  compelled  to 
leave  at  that  time,  which  go  to  show  how  strong 
an  influence  memories,  associations,  and  sentiments 
had  in  their  hearts. 

There  in  pew  No.  91  sat  Agnes  Surriage — Lady 
Frankland.     The  extraordinarily  romantic  story 


72  Old  New  England  Churches 

of  this  beautiful  woman  began,  as  all  know,  in 
Marblehead.  Mr.  Bynner  tells  the  tale  better 
than  anyone.  From  scrub  girl  to  lady  it  was  a 
far  cry,  and  both  Agnes  Surriage  and  Sir  Harry 
suffered  bitterly  enough  to  make  them  realise 
the  distance  that  lay  between.  The  Lisbon 
earthquake  was  necessary  to  bring  about  the 
marriage  of  these  two,  but  when  it  occurred  Frank- 
land  determined  there  should  be  no  uncertainty 
about  it,  hence  he  was  married  twice.  Fascinating 
Sir  Harry ! — ^whether  riding  his  horse  up  the  broad 
staircase  of  the  Frankland  mansion  or  displaying 
his  devoted,  if  erratic,  love  for  Agnes !  It  was  in 
King's  Chapel  that  she  came  to  worship  after 
Frankland's  death.  It  would  be  a  more  artistic 
ending  if  Agnes  had  not  married  in  the  end 
a  plain  Mr.  John  Drew,  a  plain  rich  banker, 
of  plain  Chichester;  but  she  still  preserved  the 
spirit  of  romance  by  dying  promptly  after  ex- 
periencing the  plain  Mr.  Drew  of  Chichester; 
and  to  preserve  the  artistic  values  we  may  assume 
it  killed  her. 

We  might  dismiss  the  subject  of  King's  Chapel 
with  some  more  profound  incident,  but  we  can 
hardly  find  a  more  fascinating  one  than  Agnes 
Surriage  and  her  lover-husband,  Frankland. 


1 


OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 

FIRST  and  Second  Church,  Trinity  and  the  Old 
South  present  in  their  histories  each  phase 
Puritan  performance.  They  stand  for  the  social, 
economic,  political  history  and  a  transition  time. 
The  Old  South  has  perhaps  more  of  romantic 
association,  and  its  history  records  more  of  vi- 
cissitude than  does  the  history  of  either  of  the 
others,  while  all  are  rich  in  fact  and  legend. 

Everett  W.  Burdett,  who  wrote  a  complete  and 
comprehensive  history  of  the  Old  South,  said  that 
the  ever  important  theological  question  of  baptism 
really  gave  this  church  its  birth.  While  the 
histories  of  the  three  other  churches  deal  more 
especially  with  the  human  document.  Old  South 
tells  a  stirring  and  romantic  story  of  events. 

Sam  Adams  called  for  war  from  the  pulpit  of  Old 
South,  long  before  he  got  it.  More  "sedition" 
and  revolution  had  its  nesting  and  homing  place 
there  than  almost  anywhere  else.  If  the  King's 
troopers  rollicked  and  rode  within  the  church's 

75 


*f6  Old  New  England  Churches 

walls  making  of  the  old  house  a  riding  school,  so 
had  Hancock,  Warren,  and  Quincy  spoken  in  the 
same  precinct  words  that  were  to  put  those  same 
troopers  out  of  commission. 

We  may  not  give  much  for  Old  South's  Chris- 
tianity, judging  by  its  written  history,  but  as  an 
agitator  it  proved  to  be  worth  a  kingdom.  In 
Christianity  it  was  weak  and  in  nationality  it  was 
yet  thoroughly  English,  even  while  it  was  pro- 
testing against  English  control,  and  the  prayers 
uttered  in  that  house,  are  almost  as  monumental 
in  their  egotism  as  are  the  words  of  the  English 
national  anthem.  For  example,  Burdett  wrote 
quite  seriously  "it  was  from  this  pulpit  that,  in 
earlier  times  went  hence  to  Heaven  that  prayer 
which  was  answered  by  the  dispersion  and  utter 
ruin  of  a  hostile  fleet  of  France."  Now  that 
narrative  is  perhaps  a  more  complete  exhibition 
of  the  non-Christian  principle  upon  which  the 
Puritan  worked,  than  any  other.  This  French 
fleet  was  on  its  way  to  Boston  Harbour,  and  on  a 
sunny  cloudless  day  the  Old  South  offered  up 
prayers  for  the  immediate  destruction  of  its 
enemies,  and  none  of  that  generation  could  have 
been  made  to  believe  that  the  frightful  storm 
which  ensued  and  dashed  the  French  to  pieces 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  yy 

upon  the  rocks,  was  not  the  work  of  God,  in  direct 
recognition  of  Piiritan  superiority.  While  a 
Christian  religion,  however  demonstrated — dem- 
onstrated by  Protestant  or  Catholic — is  the  most 
egotistical  and  least  attractive  of  any  religion, 
yet  that  practised  by  the  Puritan  was  beyond 
question  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  all  such.  To-day, 
when  Puritanism  is  so  little  dominant  we  may 
marvel  without  distraction,  but  when  men  had 
their  very  existence  by  it  it  was  detestable.  It 
was  a  religion  fit  only  for  war  and  the  making  of 
war.     It  served  its  tvim. 

Until  the  existence  of  South  Church,  the  Church 
and  State  were  one  and  indissoluble,  but  when  this 
church  came  into  being  equal  rights  and  citizen- 
ship untrammelled  by  sectarianism  were  bom 
with  it.  This  is  one  of  the  church's  greatest 
glories.  It  marked  a  period  of  true  progress  in  this 
country.  Until  that  time  this  matter  of  disfranchise- 
ment of  the  non-church  member  had  been  a  heavy 
burden  to  many.  Such  were  exempt  from  none  of 
the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  (they  must  have 
gone  soldiering  and  have  paid  taxes  with  the  best, 
or  worst,  of  them)  while  they  were  deprived  of 
many  privileges.  At  the  time  the  Old  South  came 
into  existence,  this  matter  of  disfranchisment  of 


78  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  unregenerate  was  a  burning  question.  The 
new  society  saw  clearly,  despite  its  lapses  from 
virtue — as  when  it  laid  at  God's  door  the  inhuman 
destruction  of  their  enemies. 

When  this  Boston  church  formulated  its  first 
great  departure  from  ecclesiastical  custom,  it  was 
determined  that  baptism  alone  should  qualify  a 
man  to  vote.  Before  then  the  vote  had  been 
accorded  only  to  those  who  had  become  members 
of  the  church.  When  it  was  determined  that  the 
perfunctory  performance  and  endurance  of  the  rite 
of  baptism  should  entitle  an  American  to  citizen- 
ship, the  New  World  was  indeed  upon  its  infant 
feet. 

This  radical  and  fearless  action  by  the  Boston 
First  Church  resulted  in  a  synod  of  all  the  preachers 
of  the  province.  But  they  arrived  at  no  conclusion 
except  that  disagreement  and  fight  was  best. 
The  immediate  result  was  a  separation  from  the 
First  Church  of  a  part  of  its  society  and  congre- 
gation and  the  establishment  of  the  Old  South, 
which  was  to  stand  boldly  xor  a  new  order  of 
things.  This  Old  South  was  really  the  Third 
Church  of  Boston,  the  Second  already  being  in 
existence. 

The  fight  between  the  original  society  and  its 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  79 

offshoot  was  in  no  sense  sham.  The  Bishop  of 
London  was  informed  that  the  bitterness  ran  so 
high  that  there  ''was  imprisoning  of  parties  and 
great  disturbances."  This  ecclesiastical  departure 
was  practically  the  birth  of  the  first  political  party 
in  America.  Even  the  state  forces  became  divided 
against  themselves;  there  were  those  who  stood 
for  citizenship  who  also  stood  for  the  church,  as 
well  as  those  who  stood  first  and  last  for  the  in- 
dependence of  the  citizen,  versus  the  church- 
member.  It  was  a  situation  to  the  Puritan's 
liking.  It  demanded  resistance.  When  there 
was  no  longer  another  ecclesiastical  party  to  op- 
pose, it  was  a  constitutional  necessity  that  the 
Puritan  should  divide  and  subdivide  himself  until 
he  created  an  antagonist  worthy  of  his  fighting 
capacity.  And  this  was  not  facile;  the  Puritan's 
fighting  capacity  has  probably  never  been  equalled 
by  anyone  unless  that  of  his  father — the  English- 
man. They  were  equal  until  the  Puritan  out- 
classed him. 

It  was  not  until  after  an  election  of  1690,  that 
the  Old  South,  or  Third  Church,  had  a  meeting 
house.  When  the  time  finally  came  when  the  new 
organisation  thought  to  house  itself.  Governor 
Dillingham,  who  was  a  member  of  the  First  Church, 


8o  Old  New  England  Churches 

made  the  proceeding  as  difficult  as  possible  by 
calling  together  a  council  "to  consider  the  danger 
of  'a  tumult;  some  persons  attempting  to  set  up  an 
edifice  for  public  worship,  which  was  apprehended 
by  authority  to  be  detrimental  to  the  public 
peace.'"  At  last,  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
selectmen,  the  new  society  put  up  its  first  house, 
which  was  of  cedar,  was  two  stories  high,  and  had 
a  steeple.  It  stood  upon  "the  Green."  A  row 
of  buttonwood  trees  surrounded  it,  but  in  1775 
they  went  the  way  of  most  things  that  could  be 
burned  and  spared  in  the  colony,  and  were  used 
for  firewood  to  warm  both  the  British  and  the 
Puritans.  Geographically,  at  the  time,  the  lo- 
cation of  the  cedar  house  was  south,  and  thus  it 
got  its  name.  But  then  it  was  not  the ' '  Old  South, ' ' 
simply  the  South  meeting  house.  The  Old  South 
came  into  being  only  after  a  church  was  erected 
in  Summer  Street,  in  18 17.  Then,  in  order  to 
distinguish  one  from  the  other — ^both  being  south — 
the  original  church  became  the  Old  South. 

The  new  church  was  raised  with  the  new 
mental  impulse  felt  in  the  colony,  and  since 
it  represented  that  new  hope — the  hope  of  toler- 
ance and  logical  thinking — it  was  necessarily 
prosperous      from    the    very    first.      Even    its 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  8i 

battles  were  useful  in  establishing  its  tone.  It 
was  born  to  success.  The  first  preacher  of  the 
Old  South  was  the  Reverend  Thomas  Thatcher. 
He  came  before  the  cedar  house.  After  him  was 
Samuel  Willard,  who  contributed  to  the  printer 
more  copy  than  any  other  preacher  of  the  time, 
perhaps,  unless  it  was  Cotton  Mather.  One 
cannot  say  that  either  preacher  contributed 
literature,  but  undeniably,  both  Mather  and  Wil- 
lard wrote.  The  second  preacher  again  made 
the  Old  South  luminant  by  reason  of  his  vigorous 
attitude  against  witchcraft.  He  protested  with 
all  his  Puritan  might  and  did  all  that  was  possible 
to  suppress  the  viciousness  of  the  Mather  regime. 

The  wives  and  daughters  of  those  men  who 
founded  the  Old  South  were  not  admitted  to 
church  membership  until  five  years  after  the 
foundation  of  the  society. 

There  is  in  this  an  extraordinary  and  satisfactory 
illustration  of  the  complete  materialism  of  the 
Puritan  faith.  Here  was  one  church  organisation 
refusing  to  let  its  dissenters  go,  in  order  to  prevent 
those  dissenters  from  uniting  with  another  church 
organisation.  Yet  it  was  the  professed  belief 
that  unless  a  man  was  a  church  member  he  was 
damned.    The  Puritans, from  every  evidence,  lived, 


82  Old  New  England  Churches 

first  to  spite  England,  then  to  spite  each  other, 
finally  themselves.  The  dissenters  preferred  to 
spite  their  God.  It  was  a  wonderful  confusion 
of  purpose  and  action  and  of  understanding,  taken 
all  in  all.  They  needed,  with  all  this  persistence 
and  obstinacy,  just  one  element  to  make  them 
supreme,  and  that  the  South  furnished  when  the 
crucial  moment  came.  They  needed  Washington, 
with  his  breeding  which  gives  moral  perspective, 
to  be  a  governor  upon  their  emotions.  With  the 
infusion  of  southern  civilisation  came  a  new  and 
mighty  people,  and  the  Old  South  Church  began  to 
prepare  for  that  condition  which  was  to  come  a 
hundred  years  ahead  of  its  moment. 

Soon  after  the  cedar  house  was  built  came  the 
King's  Chapel  missionaries,  begging  for  ad- 
mittance. Burdett  says,  "  Episcopacy  was  sternly 
resisted  by  those  sterner  Christians,  who,  fleeing 
from  and  then  establishing  religious  intolerance, 
furnished  one  of  the  most  striking  though  pious 
illustrations  of  the  art  of  preaching  one  thing  and 
practising  another  which  the  world  has  ever  seen.'* 
Striking,  surely,  if  not  entirely  pious! 

It  was  necessary  that  the  Old  South  society 
should  resist  the  efforts  of  the  Episcopalians  to 
establish  themselves  with  the  help  of  the  Puritan 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  83 

church,  because  it  had  been  proposed  that  the 
clergymen  of  the  Chiirch  of  England  should  have 
the  sole  right  to  solemnise  marriage.  For  the  Pur- 
itans to  have  lent  themselves  to  this  enterprise  of 
the  English  church  would  have  been  a  serious  if 
not  a  fatal  mistake,  but  there  is  evidence  that 
the  Puritans  rejoiced  in  an  opportunity  to  abuse 
the  intruding  churchmen,  rather  than  that  they 
regretted  the  occasion.  However,  moderation 
was  not  at  that  time  the  Puritan  watchword.  The 
history  of  that  moment  is  told  in  the  story  of  King's 
Chapel. 

Brotherly  love — never  very  stong  in  the  Puritan 
church — had  become  so  dilute  a  quantity  by  this 
time,  that  both  the  First  Church  society  and  that 
of  the  Old  South,  refused  absolutely,  as  late  as 
1670,  to  mend  their  differences  and  to  dwell  to- 
gether in  unity  in  the  same  town.  The  Old  South 
was  inclined  to  shake  hands  and  be  friends,  long 
before  the  First  Church  got  over  nursing  its 
wounds.  It  was  not  until  the  intrusion  of  the 
King's  Chapel  folks  that  in  face  of  a  common  cause 
of  hostility  the  two  churches  decided  to  dwell  in 
harmony.  It  had  become  a  matter  of  hanging 
together  or  hanging  separately. 

It  was  in  the  Old  South  Church  cedar  meeting 


84  Old  New  England  Churches 

house  where  sat  that  perhaps  most  ruggedly 
magnificent  of  Colonial  characters,  Judge  Sewall, 
then  Chief  Justice.  He  left  behind  him  priceless 
memoranda  in  the  form  of  a  diary  kept  over  a 
period  of  many,  many  years,  and  of  all  MSS.  of  that 
time,  it  alone  is  worthy  of  preservation  as  litera- 
ture. It  is  downright  human,  to  the  point,  and 
it  is  tender  and  it  is  graceful,  if  grace  is  to  be  found 
in  simplicity  and  truth.  It  was  this  great  man's 
son.  Dr.  Joseph  Sewall,  who  was  pastor  of 
Old  South  before  and  after  it  moved  into  its 
brick  meeting  house,  and  he  was  beloved  of  his 
world. 

Before  we  raze  the  old  cedar  house,  let  us  witness 
the  baptism  of  Benjamin  Franklin  therein. 

There  is  a  legend  borne  upon  the  Old  South 
Church,  as  follows: 

OLD   SOUTH 

Church  gathered,  1669 
First  House  Built,  1670 
This  House  Erected,  1729 
Desecrated  by  British  Troops,  1775-6 

Now  when  this  house  was  "desecrated  b/  the 
British  troops"  there  was  contributed  the  most 
picturesque  happening  in  the  church's  history. 
The  most  undeveloped  imagination  will  indicate 
to  one  the  condition  of  mind  and  nerves  into  which 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  85 

this  threw  the  patriot  Puritan.  During  this  time 
of  wreck  and  ruin,  Old  South's  congregation  turned 
to  King's  Chapel  for  help  and  found  it.  It  wor- 
shipped within  the  precincts  of  the  former  foe,  for 
more  than  five  years — ^until  1782,  when  Old  South 
was  rid  of  British  roisterers  and  was  repaired. 

Whitefield  preached  here,  and  is  said  to  have 
added  by  his  fervour  at  least  a  hundred  con- 
verts. While  he  preached,  the  church  became 
too  crowded  and  a  withdrawal  was  made  to 
the  common.  Thereafter  it  became  necessary 
wholly  to  conduct  his  preachings  outside,  the  crowd 
being  always  too  great  to  find  accommodation  in 
any  building.  The  Puritan  responded  to  any 
emotional  demand  even  as  if  a  Latin  race  had  given 
him  birth.  He  was  almost  in  no  sense  represent- 
atively English  in  anything  but  his  obstinacy. 
In  that  one  quality  he  improved  upon  his  forebears. 

One  month  of  Whitefield  left  its  direct  impress 
upon  Boston  for  more  than  two  years. 

Dr.  Joseph  Sewall  showed  the  same  indomitable 
spirit  that  was  revealed  in  his  father,  and  after 
many  decades  spent  in  the  service  of  the  Old 
South  he  died,  and  the  following  account  which 
tells  of  his  splendid  robust  persistence  until  the 
last  is  given  by  Doctor  Wisner : 


86  Old  New  England  Churches 

"He  had  for  some  time,  on  account  of  his  in- 
firmities, been  carried  into  the  pulpit  from  Sabbath 
to  Sabbath;  where,  Hke  the  beloved  disciple  of 
old  in  his  latter  days,  he  sat,  and  with  paternal 
apostolic  affection  and  fidelity,  instructed  and 
exhorted  his  children  in  the  faith.  The  evening 
he  had  arrived  to  fourscore,  he  preached  to  his 
people  an  appropriate  sermon." 

He  had  then  been  pastor  of  Old  South  for  fifty 
years,  and  he  died  upon  its  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary. 

During  this  time  we  have  evidence  of  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  in  Boston;  and  as  is  usual  it 
is  best  illuminated  by  the  press.  A  paper  of  that 
time  bears  the  following  advertisement: 

"  To  be  sold  by  the  printer  of  this  paper,  the  very 
best  Negro  Woman  in  town,  who  has  had  the 
small-pox  and  the  measels;  is  as  hearty  as  a  horse, 
as  brisk  as  a  bird,  and  will  work  like  a  beaver. 
Aug.  23d,  1742." 

To  any  but  the  American  mind,  familiar  with  the 
commercial  interests  of  North  and  South,  the  atti- 
tude of  Massachusetts  toward  the  Southerner  and 
his  problem,  in  the  face  of  fact  like  this,  would  be 
inexplicable. 

Here  in  Old  South  were  held  those  conven- 
tions called  "Town  Meetings."  Thus  the  meeting 
house  had  within  its  doors  some  of  the  most  astute 


~SKry!rFir-''mimefmaimasBmmiiskK-. 


Photograph  by  Halliday,  Boston 

OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 

■Which  rose  from  the  ruin  wrought  by  the  British  troops;  the  meeting  house  in  which  some  of  the  finest 
legislation  in  American  history  took  place 


. •, cc  c   c 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  87 

men  and  brilliant  performances  of  political  history. 
In  those  only  half  conventional  meetings  of  the 
citizens,  there  passed  some  of  the  profoundest, 
wisest  legislation  in  history.  So  inimical  to  Brit- 
ish interests  were  these  doings  that  an  effort  was 
made  to  suppress  them.  The  Town  Meeting  was 
the  backbone  of  colonial  legislation,  as  a  matter 
of  fact. 

It  was  from  the  Old  South  Church  that  the 
assembly  of  people  marched  to  the  Boston  Mas- 
sacre, the  harangues  and  arguments  having  taken 
place  there,  earlier  in  the  day.  Samuel  Adams 
had  addressed  the  company,  and  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  he  said  afterwards :  "If  fancy  deceived 
me  not,  I  observed  his  knees  to  tremble;  I  thought 
I  saw  his  face  grow  pale,  and  I  enjoyed  the  sight." 
The  demand  had  been  for  the  withdrawal  of  the 
King's  troops. 

The  summary  motion,  "Whether  is  it  the  firm 
resolution  of  this  body  that  the  tea  shall  not  only 
be  sent  back,  but  that  no  duty  shall  be  paid  there- 
on," was  put  and  affirmatively  carried  in  the  Old 
South  Church.  It  was  there  decided  under 
the  circumstances  ' '  that  in  the  sense  of  this  body 
that  the  use  of  tea  is  improper  and  pernicious." 
It  was  after  all  of  this  courageous  performance  that 


88  Old  New  England  Churches 

Burgoyne's  regiment  took  the  church  for  a  riding 
school,  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  action 
was  directly  in  keeping  with  a  human  weakness 
that  is  common  to  all  of  us.  Certainly  if  the 
British  had  cause  to  detest  anything  American 
— and  doubtless  they  had — it  must  have  been 
the  Old  South  Church.  At  that  time  the  interior 
of  the  church  was  nearly  torn  out  to  make  fires 
for  the  soldiery,  although,  aside  from  the  case 
of  the  Old  South,  there  was  something  like  system 
observed  in  destroying  property — the  oldest  houses 
being  chosen  first  for  destruction,  and  the  de- 
struction was  generally  necessary  if  the  people 
were  to  keep  warm  and  survive  the  season.  One 
very  shocking  affair,  however,  is  to  be  recorded, 
and  implies  vindictiveness  pure  and  simple:  "The 
beautiful  carved  pew  of  Deacon  Hubbard,  with 
the  silken  hangings,  was  taken  down  and  carried 
to 's  house  by  an  officer  and  made  a  hog- 
stye'  ' — which  does  seem  to  be  a  characteristic  of 
English  rather  than  of  Napoleonic  warfare. 

It  were  futile  to  try  to  present  in  anything  like 
completeness  the  picturesque  and  rugged  story  of 
Old  South  Church,  within  so  limited  a  space.  It 
has  been  well  and  completely  done  by  others,  in 
books   devoted    solely  to    its  celebration.     If 


Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  89 

meant  no  more  to  American  history  than  did  the 
other  Boston  churches  here  discussed,  yet  its  his- 
tory is  somewhat  different  in  character.  It  be- 
longed to  the  revolutionary  time,  more  especially, 
and  could  not  avoid  a  brilliant  history,  since  men, 
politics,  and  churches  were  then  one  and  almost 
inseparable. 


CONCORD  CHURCH,  CONCORD,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  V 
Concord  Church,  Concord,  Massachusetts 

IN  INVESTIGATING  the  meeting  house 
of  New  England  one  becomes  curious 
to  know  if  any  other  tree  than  the  oak  tree 
flourished  in  all  that  region.  The  monotony 
of  the  "spreading  oak"  as  a  seat  of  worship  be- 
comes painful.  Certain  it  was  that  the  Concord, 
Massachusetts,  purchase  was  transacted  under 
an  oak,  and  that  oak  was  named  after  one  of  the 
settlers,  "  Jethro's  tree."  Tradition  has  it  that 
the  oak  served  later  as  a  belfry.  The  name  Con- 
cord doubtless  stands  for  the  united  condition 
of  the  settlers.  One  historian  promises  to  give 
us  the  origin  of  this  name,  but  in  handling  larger 
matters  he  forgets  the  detail  and  tells  us  no  more 
about  it. 

Concord  did  not  exist  as  a  town  until  fifteen 
years  after  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth, 
and  it  was  five  years  behind  Boston  in  settle- 
ment.    In  that  year,    1635,   ^^^  General  Court 

declared  that  "no  new  building  should  be  built 

93 


94  Old  New  England  Churches 

more  than  half  a  mile  from  the  meeting  house 
in  any  near  plantation";  thus  Concord  was 
doubtless  the  first  of  the  settlements  arbitrarily 
to  build  with  the  meeting  house  as  its  nucleus. 
A  good  many  of  Concord's  settlers  were  rich 
men.  The  Rev.  Peter  Buckley's  fortune  of  ;i^6,ooo 
sterling  represented  doubtless  the  maximum  of 
individual  fortune.  It  was  said  of  the  entire 
settlement  of  New  England,  that  "God  sifted  a 
whole  nation  that  he  might  send  choice  grain 
over  into  this  wilderness."  However  that  may 
be,  it  is  certain  that  if  obstinacy  is  strength  these 
colonists  were  Herculean. 

Of  the  frightful  difficulties  of  these  settlers  we 
have  an  exceedingly  good  account  in  Johnson's 
"Wonder-working  Providence"  which  was  written 
about  1650.  From  it  we  learn  how  land  was 
purchased  from  the  Indians : 

"and  with  much  difficulty  travelling  through 
unknowne  woods,  and  through  watery  swamps  they 
discovered  the  fitnesse  of  the  place;  sometimes 
passing  through  the  thickets,  where  their  hands 
were  forced  to  make  way  for  their  bodies' 
passage,  and  their  feete  clambering  over  the 
crossed  trees,  which  when  they  missed  they  sunk 
into  an  uncertaine  bottome  in  water,  and  waded 
up  to  their  knees,  tumbling  sometimes  higher 
and  sometimes  lower.     Wearied  with  this  toile, 


Concord  Church,  Concord,  Mass.  95 

they  at  end  of  this  meete  with  a  scorching  plaine, 
yet  not  such  plaine  but  that  the  ragged  bushes 
scratched  their  legs  foully,  even  to  wearing  their 
stockings  to  the  bare  skin  in  two  or  three  hours. 
If  they  be  not  otherwise  defended  with  boots  or 
buskings,  their  flesh  will  be  torne.  Some  of  them 
being  forced  to  passe  on  without  further  pro- 
vision, have  had  the  bloud  trickle  down  at  every 
step.  And  further,  in  the  summer  the  sun  cast 
such  a  reflectmg  heate  upon  the  sweet  feme, 
whose  scent  is  very  strong,  that  some  herewith 
have  beene  very  near  fainting,  although  very 
able  bodies  to  undergoe  much  travel.  And 
it  is  not  to  be  endured  for  one  day  but  for  many; 
and  verily  did  not  the  Lord  encourage  their 
natural  parts  (with  hopes  of  a  new  and  strange 
discovery  expecting  every  houre  to  see  some  rare 
sight  never  seen  before)  they  were  never  able  to 
hold  out  and  breake  through." 

There  are  many  pages  of  this  description — dif- 
ficulties presented  simply  and  with  a  forceful 
choice  of  words,  though  sometimes  the  strange 
construction  distracts  us.  We  read  that  not 
only  men  but  "  their  wives  and  little  ones  "  shared 
these  extraordinary  perils.  The  same  historian 
speaks  with  wonderment  of  how  they  planted 
their  Indian  com: 

"  in  hills  five  foot  asunder,  and  surely  when  the 
Lord  created  this  com  he  had  a  special  eye  to 
supply  these  His  people's  wants  with  it,  for 
ordinarily  five  or  six  grains  would  produce  six 


96  Old  New  England  Churches 

hundred.  .  .  .  The  toil  of  a  new  plantation 
being  like  the  labours  of  Hercules,  never  at  an 
end,  yet  are  none  so  barbarously  bent  .  .  . 
but  with  a  new  plantation  they  ordinarily  gather 
into  a  new  church  fellowship,  so  that  pastor  and 
people  suffer  the  inconveniences  together  which 
is  a  great  means  to  season  the  sore  labours  they 
undergoe."  * 

One  of  the  early  objects  of  church  settlement 
in  Concord  was  to  Christianise  the  Indians. 
They  meant  to  prescribe  no  method,  no  form  of 
worship,  because  it  was  expressly  stated  that 
the  Indians  were  "to  read  God's  word,  to  know 
God  aright,  and  to  worship  him  in  his  own  way.''^ 
We  have  complete  evidence  here  in  Concord 
that  had  those  early  settlers  in  some  degree 
fulfilled  their  promise  of  fair  dealing,  they  would 
have  escaped  many  of  their  most  desperate  ills — 
Indian  dangers.  The  Indians  were  most  amenable 
to  Christian  teaching,  were  not  in  a  resentful  mood, 
discussed  religion  more  logically  than  super- 
stitiously,  and  regarded  the  bulwark  principles 
of  Christianity  as  a  practical  means  to  a  practical 
end,  namely  to  the  better  ordering  of  affairs 
between  Indian  nations  as  well  as  between  Indians 

♦There  is  frequently  an  attempt  at  punctuation  made  in  these  quotations  by  the 
compiler  as  a  help  to  lucidity.  So  much  liberty  with  the  original  text  seems 
necessary. 

titalics  are  not  used  in  the  original. 


Concord  Church,  Concord,  Mass.  97 

and  English,  and  between  individuals.  If  we 
accept  the  utilitarian  preachment  that  "what- 
ever is,  is  right,"  we  must  regard  the  action  of  the 
colonists  with  favour,  and  believe  that  the  benefits 
of  earth  rightfully  and  economically  belong  to 
those  who  can  make  them  their  own.  A  properly 
ordered  mathematical  mind  is  bound  to  regard 
the  vexing  and  ancient  Indian  question  with 
a  certain  tranquillity  bom  of  this  view,  but  a 
common-or-garden  sense  of  honour  seems  ever 
to  repudiate  the  ragged  apothegm  that  "all  is 
fair  in  love  and  war."  At  least  we  wish  that  an 
injustice  so  antagonistic  to  sentiment,  had  not 
been  so  hatefully  cloaked.  We  should  be  glad 
to  think  that  the  Indian  lost  his  privileges,  his 
right  to  what  was  his  own,  by  the  more  heroic 
machinery  of  flame  and  sword,  instead  of  by  a 
mean  deception  practised  upon  him  by  the  half- 
educated.  The  rank  savage  is  fairly  outspoken 
and  crude  in  his  representations,  even  as  a  little 
child  is,  while  the  educated  man  believes  that 
honesty  is  the  best  policy  even  if  it  be  nothing 
better.  It  is  the  middle  mind  which  resorts  to 
the  method  of  our  fathers  in  America.  Intel- 
lectually they  were  hopelessly  mediocre.  Emo- 
tionally   they  performed  miracles  without  know- 


98  Old  New  England  Churches 

ing  it.  It  would  be  as  absurd  to  censure  them 
for  what  they  did  not  know  as  it  would  be  to 
reprove  the  savage  for  doing  what  he  was  com- 
pelled to  do;  but  it  is  distressful  either  way  you 
take  it. 

At  this  time  Concord  was  the  seat  of  Christian 
learning  and  counsel  for  the  Indian,  and  while 
this  condition  lasted,  both  the  settlers  and  the 
Indians  profited.  With  an  Indian  settlement 
under  the  wing  of  the  colony,  the  latter  found  it 
necessary  to  undo  that  frightful  evil  of  its  own 
people — drunkenness.  The  Puritans  had  made 
alcoholic  fiends  of  the  Indians,  in  their  efforts 
to  outwit  them,  and  it  had  not  made  a  great  deal 
of  difference  so  long  as  their  victims  were  at  a 
distance;  but  now,  with  a  settlement  at  its  own 
door.  Concord  found  it  necessary  to  regulate  it. 
Hence  there  were  orders  drawn  up  by  "two  faith- 
ful witnesses  . '  .  .  their  own  copy  with  their 
own  hands  to  it";  and  this  document  provided 
"  that  every  one  that  shall  abuse  themselves  with 
wine  or  strong  liquor,  shall  pay,  for  every  time 
so  abusing  themselves,  20s."  It  was  not  found 
desirable  to  apply  this  regulation  to  the  Christian 
settler  because  in  most  cases  it  would  very  seri- 
ously  have   interfered   with   the    "raring   of   the 


Concord  Church,  Concord,  Mass.  99 

meeting  hows."  This  "raring"  was  mostly  done 
on  strong  Hquors;  the  grace  of  God  not  being  a 
sufficient  leverage. 

It  was  also  determined  in  this  document  that 
the  Indians  "  should  pay  their  debts  to  the  En- 
glish," but  there  was  no  reciprocity.  If  the 
Indians  did  not  pay  their  debts  to  the  English 
there  was  some  sort  of  penalty  attached,  while 
if  the  English  did  not  pay  their  debts  to  the  In- 
dians there  seems  to  have  been  no  penalty  at- 
tached— ^until  after  the  Indians  got  wise. 

Concord  set  the  style  in  habit  as  well  as  in 
morals  for  the  savages.  The  manner  in  which 
the  Indian  wore  his  hair  seemed  unsuitable  to 
Concord  citizens,  and  their  document  of  rules 
declared  that  the  Indian  should  "wear  his  hair 
comely  as  the  English  do,  and  whosoever  shall 
offend  herein  shall  pay  4s";  also  the  Indians 
were  prohibited  to  play  at  their  former  games 
without  the  forfeiture  of  tenpence.  There  was 
one  concession:  The  Indian  was  prohibited  from 
coming  into  an  Englishman's  house  without  first 
knocking,  and  in  turn  the  Englishman  agreed 
to  knock  upon  the  Indian's  door.  In  the  midst 
of  so  much  altruism  on  the  part  of  the  Indian 
and  so  little  reciprocity  on  the  part  of  the  colonist 


loo  Old  New  England  Churches 

we  suspect  that  Concord's  concession  to  polite- 
ness was  to  save  the  citizen  some  embarrass- 
ment; but  if  we  know  anything  of  the  Indian 
we  know  that  the  plan  miscarried:  nothing  in- 
terrupts the  Indian. 

We  learn  that  the  Indian  under  these  rules  and 
regulations,  of  which  there  were  twenty-nine 
(more  than  one  of  them  quite  unprintable),  began 
at  once  to  reform;  that  is  to  say,  he  began  to  be 
more  like  the  settlers.  The  picturesque  side  of 
Concord  history  lies  in  its  Indian  affiliation. 

There  were  no  records  of  the  Concord  church 
preserved  for  a  hundred  years  after  it  was  es- 
tablished. Most  of  these  we  have  were  carefully 
collated  by  Shattuck  from  family  records,  ancient 
manuscripts,   legends,   and  similar  sources. 

The  first  time  a  group  of  men  came  together 
with  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  church  they 
met  in  Cambridge,  and  the  punctiliousness  of 
those  invited  to  the  seance  interfered  considerably 
with  its  success.  The  governor  and  deputy- 
governor  felt  there  was  some  informality  in  the 
invitation  and  did  not  come;  but  a  "day  of 
humiliation"  was  kept  on  April  sixth,  1637,  at 
Cambridge,  after  which  Mr.  Bulkley  was  chosen 
teacher  and  Mr.  Jones,  pastor.     Mr.  Bulkley  was 


Concord  Church,  Boston,  Mass.  ' '  "  "  ibi 

a  rich  man  as  fortunes  went  in  those  days.  He 
was  of  excellent  birth  and  a  man  of  letters.  This 
Concord  church  was  the  first  formally  to  catechise 
children.  Considerable  difficulty  followed  the 
organisation  of  the  church,  because  there  was  no 
way  of  raising  the  seventy  pounds  per  year  voted 
to  Mr.  Bulkley  as  salary. 

In  Peter  Bulkley,  the  first  preacher,  we  have 
an  exceptional  example  of  a  man  ahead  of  his 
time,  and  he  mildly  and  most  excusably  repined 
that  he  was  "  shut  up  away  from  intellectual 
fellowship  and  temperamental  interests."  We 
have  the  character  of  one  preacher  of  this  Con- 
cord church  summed  up  on  his  tomb,  and  judging 
thereby,  Concord  indeed  was  fortunate  in  its  preach- 
er-citizens. The  man  was  the  Rev.  John  Whiting, 
who  came  perhaps  more  than  one  hundred  years 
after  the  organisation  of  the  church.  His  epitaph 
tells  us  that  he  was  "  a  gentleman  of  singular 
hospitality,  who  never  detracted  from  the  char- 
acter of  any  man,  and  was  a  universal  lover  of 
mankind."  There  is  a  sincerity  and  beauty  in 
this  epitaph,  which  makes  it  notable  among  the 
hundreds  of  grotesque,  bathotic  or  inconsequent 
tombstone  memoranda  of  that  time. 

Something  of  the  spiritual  situation  in  Concord 


'idi""'"    'Old  New  England  Churches 

may  be  inferred  from  the  following  entry  in  White- 
field's  diary,  apropos  of  his  visit  to  Concord.  He 
wrote  that  he  preached  to  thousands;  that  "the 
hearers  were  frequently  melted  down";  and  that 

"about  ;^45  was  collected  for  the  orphans.  The 
minister  of  the  town  being,  I  believe,  a  true  child 
of  God,  I  chose  to  stay  all  night  at  his  house  that 
we  might  rejoice  together.  The  Lord  was  with 
us.  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  me,  and 
God  gave  me  to  wrestle  with  him  for  my  friends, 
especially   those   that   are   with   me.     They   felt 

his  power.     Brother  B S ,   the  minister, 

broke  into  floods  of  tears  and  we  had  reason  to  cry 
out  it  was  good  for  us  to  be  there." 

There  is  something  very  distressing  in  the 
overwrought,  unseemly  moments  that  the  present 
generation  witnesses  through  such  records  as  these ; 
but  it  was  that  marvellous  emotional  capacity, 
ordinarily  so  foreign  to  the  English,  which  made 
possible  the  stupendous  victory  of  the  Revolution. 
It  was  not  true  that  "  God  sifted  a  whole  nation 
that  he  might  send  choice  grain  over  into  this 
wilderness."  The  Puritan  colonists  certainly  were 
not  men  of  probity,  of  benevolence,  even  of 
ordinary  kindliness  of  disposition,  taken  as  a 
people.  It  is  not  recorded  save  in  individual 
cases,  that  the  ordinary  virtues  demanded  of  an 
ordinary    civilisation,    belonged    to    those    men; 


Concord  Church,  Concord,  Mass.  103 

but  where  they  lived  was  to  be  expected  an  emo- 
tional crisis.  With  the  excuse  of  English  oppres- 
sion and  cruelty  as  extreme  as  the  oppressive 
cruelties  of  their  own  theocracy,  they  lived  up  to 
the  deadly  promise  of  their  temperament,  their 
strange  and  fearful  temperament !  They  had  un- 
lovely customs,  hideous  habits  of  thought ;  but  their 
tendency  to  emotional  extremes  made  a  revo- 
lution and  compelled  success.  Self-preservation 
being  the  first  law,  the  absurdity  of  their  religious 
discipline  had  to  give  way,  and  one  hundred  and 
thirty  years  have  made  an  impossible  people 
marvels  of  resource;  have  furnished  more  average 
intellectuality  than  we  find  among  other  people, 
and  have  destroyed  so  much  of  that  original 
obstinacy  and  intolerance  that  a  very  prince 
among  minds  has  declared  "  un  Americain  aimable, 
vaut  deux  Anglais  charmants/" — a  hundred  years 
after !     Marvellous ! 

The  town's  name  did  not  secure  the  church  from 
considerable  internal  difficulty,  and  we  find 
"twenty-two  articles  of  grievance"  chronicled. 
One  grievance  dealt  with  the  eminently  theo- 
logical point:  did  a  man  know  whether  or  not 
he  was  converted?  Mr.  Bliss  had  to  defend  him- 
self because  he  had  asserted  "that  every  person 


I04  Old  New  England  Churches 

that  was  converted  must  know  it;  and  afterward 
denied  it."  A  council  could  not  consent  to  the  first 
clause:  one  man  might  be  converted  and  know  it, 
and  another  man  might  be  converted  and  know 
nothing  about  it.  It  was  a  touchy  point ;  but  then 
Concord  was  exceedingly  particular — its  soldiers 
are  said  to  have  stopped  in  the  wilderness  to  settle 
the  question,  "  Whether  they  were  in  a  covenant  of 
works  or  a  covenant  of  grace.''  Mr.  Bliss,  who 
seemed  inclined  to  think  that  the  average  Christ- 
ian should  be  able  to  diagnose  his  own  case,  made 
his  peace  with  the  church  at  last.  He  had  the 
power  of  the  revivalist  big  within  him: 

"  He  began  in  a  low,  moderate  strain,  and  went 
on  for  some  time  in  the  same  manner;  but  toward 
the  close  of  his  sermon  he  began  to  raise  his  voice 
and  to  use  many  extravagant  gestures,  and  then 
began  a  considerable  groaning  amidst  the  auditors 
which  as  soon  as  he  perceived  he  raised  his  voice 
still  higher  and  then  the  congregation  were  in 
the  utmost  confusion.  Some  crying  out  in  the 
most  doleful  accents,  some  howling,  some  laughing 
and  others  singing,  and  Mr.  Bliss  still  roaring  to 
them  to  come  to  Christ — they  answering,  *I  will, 
I    will,    I'm    coming,    I'm    coming.'  " 

A  negro  camp  meeting  doubtless  approaches  the 
Puritan  conditions  nearer  than  any  other  modem 
exhibition. 


Concord  Church,  Concord,  Mass.  105 

After  this  the  ecclesiastical  history  in  Concord 
becomes  somewhat  complicated.  Families  were 
disrupted,  society  was  disrupted,  and  ministers 
figuratively  torn  limb  from  limb.  But  good 
came  out  of  this  since  in  the  end  they  united  in 
sharing  a  more  liberal  view. 

In  leaving  the  church,  and  turning  to  tales  of 
custom,  there  are  some  interesting  revelations 
concerning  burial.  When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bliss 
died,  his  coffin  was  made  by  Ebenezer  Hartshorn, 
and  "five  hundred  broad  headed  coffin  nails; 
and  five  hundred  small  white  tacks  were  put  on 
the  cover."  "White  ones  used  to  be  used, but 
later  they  use  them  that  are  japanned  black." 

There  are  numberless  anecdotes  to  be  found 
of  the  Concord  fighters  and  one  of  them  seems 
fairly  to  epitomise  the  spirit  of  the  whole  fighting 
colony  of  America.  It  was  during  the  battle 
in  which  it  fell  to  Concord  to  kill  the  first  British 
soldier  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  that  this  hap- 
pened : 

"most  of  the  provincials  preceded  them  across 
the  bridge,  though  a  few  of  them  returned  to 
Butrick's  with  their  dead.  Among  those  who 
returned  was  Luther  Blanchard  who  went  to 
Mrs.  Barrett's.  Mrs.  Barrett  examined  his  wound 
and   mournfully   remarked,    *A   little   more   and 


io6  Old  New  England  Churches 

you'd  been  killed.'  'Yes,'  said  Blanchard,  'and 
a  little  more  and  'twouldn't  have  touched  me' 
— and  immediately  joined  the  pursuers." 

This  is  a  rattling  good  story  of  a  rattling  good 
chap,  who  probably  couldn't  have  got  killed  had 
he  tried! 

In  1743  began  the  preacher  line  of  Emersons, 
and  we  seem  incipient ly  to  find  in  the  Rev.  William 
Emerson  all  those  fascinating  qualities  of  mind 
that  belonged  later  to  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 
There  are  those  things  in  the  history  of  his  preach- 
ing which  suggest  the  main  characteristic  of  the 
essayist's  work:  Emerson  did  not  always  think 
correctly  perhaps,  but  he  compelled  his  reader 
to  think  for  himself;  inspiring  others  to  creative 
thought  in  a  degree  that  is  true  of  no  other  English 
writer. 

It  was  the  great  fortune  of  Concord  Church  to 
number  an  intellectual  Emerson  among  its  preach- 
ers. 


QUINCY  CHURCH,  QUINCY,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  VI 
QuiNCY  Church,  Quincy,  Massachusetts 

'T^HE  YEAR  1636  was  the  local  beginning, 
and  Quincy  was  the  hotbed  of  anti- 
nomianism.  There  is  no  record  of  the  time 
when  the  first  meeting  house  was  built  nor 
of  the  site  on  which  it  stood.  The  stone  church 
has  no  more  positive  record  than  has  the  first 
building,  but  the  stone  church  existed  in  1666, 
for  a  weather  vane  which  adorned  it  before  it 
was  pulled  down,  bore  that  date.  This  does  not 
establish  the  time  when  the  house  was  built  how- 
ever, for  the  meeting  houses  in  those  days  acquired 
their  furniture  on  the  installment  plan — ^belfry 
to-day,  weathercock  to-morow!  One  historian 
tells  us  that  the  old  Plymouth  road,  laid  out  in 
1640,  divided  when  it  reached  this  church,  going 
two  rods  north  and  two  rods  south.  The  old 
meeting  house  had  a  bell,  but  the  date  of  its 
acquisition  is  lost.  We  know  a  great  many 
things  about  the  church  merely  by  inference. 

The  town  appropriated  25s  for  the  salary  of 

109 


no  Old  New  England  Churches 

Thomas  Revells,  whose  duty  it  was  to  ring  the 
bell  and  to  sweep  the  meeting  hpuse.  The  bell 
was  cracked  and  hardly  worth  ringing  and  because 
of  this  Mr.  Daniel  Lagaree  hoped  to  escape  serving 
as  constable.  The  following  significant  record 
is  to  be  found  on  the  minutes  of  the  town  meeting. 
Voted: 

I 

"  Whereas  the  meeting  house  bell,  by  reason  of 
a  great  crack  in  it,  has  become  entirely  unser- 
viceable, Mr.  Daniel  Lagaree  offering  to  mend  it 
on  condition  of  his  being  freed  from  being  chosen 
constable,  as  also  he  will  run  the  hazard  of  losing 
his  labour  and  cost  in  case  he  cannot  mend  it; 
and  further,  if  anything  should  happen  whereby 
it  should  be  melted  or  broken  that  he  will  return 
the  same  weight  of  the  same  metal  that  he  re- 
ceives. It  is  voted  that  the  bell  be  forthwith 
committed  unto  him  upon  the  conditions  above 
said  and  if  said  Lagaree  shall  mend  it  well  and 
workmanlike,  whereby  it  shall  again  prove  suf- 
ficiently serviceable  according  to  its  dimensions, 
he  shall  either  be  freed  from  being  constable  as 
he  desires  or  he  shall  be  paid  for  his  labour  accord- 
ing to  its  due  value." 

Mr.  Lagaree  was  unable  to  fulfil  his  contract. 

This  Quincy  meeting  house  is  about  the  only 
instance  we  have  of  a  colonial  church  being  built 
of  stone.  It  had  a  turret  and  it  had  gutters  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  altogether  modem  in  many 


Quincy  Church,  Quincy,  Mass.  iii 

of  its  appointments;  but  like  all  other  congre- 
gations of  the  time,  Quincy' s  shivered.  It  did 
not  even  have  foot-stoves;  but  "they  preached 
their  brimstone  theology  with  such  fervour  that 
it  imparted  sufficient  caloric  to  keep  them  com- 
fortably warm  in  the  coldest  weather."  Long 
prayers  were  the  rule  here,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  they  matched  those  heard  in  Weymouth  from 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Torrey,  a  record  breaker  in  the  mat- 
ter of  lengthy  supplications.  One  prayer  is  said 
to  have  lasted  two  hours,  but  the  hearers  out- 
stayed him,  and  only  wished  that  he  might  have 
prayed  an  hour  longer.  Probably  the  preacher 
was  so  much  exhausted  that  the  congregation 
felt  safe  in  thus  expressing  itself.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  honest  stone  structure  the  people  of 
Quincy  had  built,  they  were  as  dissatisfied  as 
those  who  worshipped  in  wooden  houses,  and 
about  1695  began  to  throw  stones  toward  a  new 
house.  We  may  infer  from  the  minutes  of  a 
later  meeting  that  no  immediate  action  was  taken: 
"Mr.  Caleb  Hubbard  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Sevill 
wisre  instructed  to  stop  the  leaks  in  the  south 
side  of  the  meeting  house."  This  they  did,  and 
let  it  go  at  that  for  thirty-five  years;  but  at  the 
end  of  that  time  the  old  house  was  in  a  desolate 


112  Old  New  England  Churches 

condition.  The  guttering  had  gone  bad,  and 
twenty  shillings  were  paid  to  the  Precinct  Clerk 
to  clear  the  snow  from  the  inside.  The  same 
official  received  the  billet  to  rid  the  church 
of  dogs. 

Quincy  church  must  have  been  a  very  Con- 
stantinople for  dogs!  The  difficulty  became  so 
great  everywhere  that  in  one  town  they  had  a 
law  which  read:  "Every  dog* that  comes  to  the 
meeting  house  either  of  the  Lord's  day  or  lecture 
day  except  it  be  their  dogs  that  pay  for  a  dog- 
whipper,  the  owner  of  those  dogs  shall  pay  six- 
pence for  every  time  they  come  to  the  meeting 
that  doth  not  pay  the  dog- whipper. " — Involved, 
but  covers  the  point !  Away  back  in  Old  England 
we  find  Archbishop  Laud  in  trouble  over  this 
same  matter  of  dogs.  There  is  compensation 
in  the  knowledge  that  he  was  in  trouble  over 
anything.  It  became  necessary  for  the  Arch- 
bishop to  direct,  "that  the  rail  before  the  com- 
munion table  shall  be  made  'near  one  yard  in  height 
so  thick  with  pillars  that  dogs  may  not  get  in.'  " 
Dogs  were  necessary  to  the  colonists  because  they 
helped  to  scare  the  wolves  off,  and  a  man  was 
compelled  by  law  to  keep  them. 

One  record  tells  us  that  the  old  stone  church 


Quincy  Church,  Quincy,  Mass.  113 

was  finally  sold  in  1747  with  the  understanding 
that  it  was  to  be  converted  into  a  poorhouse,  or 
at  least  that  a  poorhouse  was  to  be  put  up  on  the 
same  site;  but  another  record  declares  that  the 
sale  was  not  completed  until  long  after. 

In  the  building  of  the  third  meeting  house 
there  was  much  delay,  hesitancy,  and  dissatis- 
faction, and  it  was  a  good  while  before  it  got  as 
far  as  "bread,  cheese,  sugar,  rum,  cider,  and  beer 
at  the  cost  of  the  precinct,"  without  which  de- 
tails a  meeting  house  could  hardly  have  been 
erected.  Finally  the  requisite  motion  was  voted 
on  and  carried,  and  with  the  help  of  this  refresh- 
ment the  townspeople  raised  the  meeting  house. 
The  mixed  drink  was  to  be  found  in  its  fullest 
splendour  at  that  time,  even  if  it  did  not  include 
the  entire  spectrum.  To-day  public  opinion  has 
placed  certain  strictures  upon  it,  and  it  is  some- 
what more  proper  to  be  sober  than  drunk,  but  in 
those  days  alcoholic  incentive  was  an  essential 
to  all  public  effort,  and  it  was  as  natural  to  be 
drunk  as  sober.  It  is  quite  terrible  to  read  of 
the  excesses  of  the  Puritan  fathers.  In  one  town, 
at  a  meeting  house  raising,  two  barrels  of  rum 
were  secured  by  the  selectmen,  which  they  hoped 
would  be  "liquor  sufficient  for  the  spectators." 


114  Old  New  England  Churches 

Samuel  Mather's  mixed  -  drink  formula  was  as 
famous  in  its  day  as  Pope's  magnificent  poem 
to  the   Epicure   is   in  ours.     The  former  reads*. 

"To  purest  water  sugar  must  be  joined; 
With  these  the  grateful  acid  is  combined; 
When  now  these  three  are  mixed  with  care, 
Then  added  be  of  sugar  a  small  share ; 
And  that  the  drink  we  may  quite  perfect  see, 
A  top  a  musky  nut  must  grated  be." 

In  Boston,  John  Bayle  was  able  to  secure  a  liquor 
license  only  on  condition  that  he  set  up  his  rumshop 
near  the  meeting  house  of  the  Second  Church,  and 
there  he  offered  an  "invitation  to  thirsty  sinners' '  on 
their  way  to  hear  Increase  Mather  berate  them. 

The  fortunes  of  the  New  England  aristocrat  were 
almost  without  exception  made  in  the  slave 
trade,  the  making  of  rum,  or  the  trade  in  tobacco. 
The  latter  it  was  considered  a  sin  to  smoke  but 
they  sold  it  to  the  Dutch  and  used  the  New 
England  meeting  house  in  which  to  store  it.  The 
West  Indians  and  Virginians  bought  most  of 
their  slaves  from  the  New  England  importers, 
and  we  have  note  of  three  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco  given  as  an  equivalent  for  a  negro  boy 
or  girl  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  eleven. 
Four  thousand  pounds  of  Virginia  tobacco  was 
about  the  figure  for  a  boy  or  girl  between  the  ages 


Photoaraph  by  Hailiday,  Boston 
OLD  CHURCH:  "CHURCH  OF  STATESMEN,"  QUINCY,  MASSACHUSETTS 
Where  John  and  John  Quincy  Adams  lie  buried.     The  meeting  house  built  of  stone  given  from  President  John  Adams'  quarries 


■umim^JHI  iL,.iii.L.  if^t  ujj.yii|pipyBM!'.u,iii»,iu  immfmfmmgififaiui  i»ti||i!i.iL(,i«>g(jia»|jiiiji,j«ii,iii»iii 


Quincy  Church,  Quincy,  Mass.  115 

of  eleven  and  fifteen;  but  a  young  woman  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty-four  was  put 
in  the  balance  with  five  thousand  pounds.  The 
ships  were  so  deeply  laden  with  slaves  that  it 
became  at  one  time  impossible  to  carry  any  rum, 
and  this  was  so  great  a  grievance  that  the  slaves' 
fate  hung  in  the  balance.  Should  several  be  thrown 
overboard  and  a  hogshead  of  rum  take  their 
place,  or  should  appetite  be  sacrificed  to  the  more 
permanent  investment? 

These  old  meeting-house  fathers  showed  the 
famous  New  England  trade-instinct  early.  One 
Simeon  Fotter  who  was  in  the  business  of  buying 
people  started  his  captain  off  with  rum  in  1768, 
with  the  following  instructions: 

"Make  your  Chief  Trade  with  the  Blacks  and 
little  or  none  with  the  white  people  if  possible 
to  be  avoided.  Worter  ye  Rum  as  much  as 
possible  and  sell  as  much  by  short  measure  as 
you  can." 

This  commercial  method  was  by  no  means  ex- 
ceptional. It  was  the  rule  of  the  Puritan  fathers. 
These  methods  gave  many  a  man  first  place  in  the 
New  England  meeting  house  when  the  selectmen 
came  to  apportion  the  seats,  wealth  being  a  reason 
for  precedence  in  the  colonial  church  structure. 


ii6  Old  New  England  Churches 

It  is  hardly  ever  recorded  that  honesty  and 
integrity  were  demanded  of  these  Puritans,  and 
at  any  rate  these  qualities  had  naught  to  do  with 
establishing  precedence  of  any  sort;  except  in- 
deed that  honest  men,  if  there  were  any  such, 
were  likely  to  pass  unprecedently  ignored.  Ben- 
jamin Lynde's  diary  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  a  man 
punctiliously  honest  in  the  matter  of  paying  his 
share  of  the  scot  and  in  keeping  even  with  his 
neighbours.  But  that  was  honesty  of  an  exclu- 
sively personal  sort,  and  what  even  Ben jaminLynde 
did  when  it  came  to  an  unsentimental  business 
transaction  we  do  not  know.  Probably  he  did 
very  much  as  his  neighbours  did,  being  in  Rome. 

The  new  Quincy  meeting  house  received  from 
Madame  Norton  a  velvet  cushion  for  the  pulpit, 
and  we  learn  that  "  the  appearance  of  the  church, 
inside  as  well  as  out,  is  still  quite  respectable."  A 
meeting  house  with  a  velvet  cushion,  and  such 
other  equipment  as  we  read  Quincy' s  had,  was 
very  exceptional ;  although  there  was  great  rivalry 
in  the  matter  of  interior  decoration  at  that  time. 
We  read  of  one  meeting  house  that  was  painted 
bright  yellow  and  red,  and  at  once  the  congre- 
gations all  about  took  fire  and  blossomed  forth 
in  the  same  colours.     We  have  the  description 


Quincy  Churchy  Quincy,  Mass.  117 

of  another  house  on  which  was  represented  both 
ends  of  the  spectrum  in  a  very  amazing  fashion: 

"The  body  of  the  church  was  painted  a  bright 
orange;  the  doors  and  bottom  part  a  warm 
chocolate  colour;  the  window  jets  and  comer 
boards  and  weather  boards  white.  This  church 
possessed  an  'eleclarick  rod'  and  boasted  it  was 
the  'newest,  biggest  and  yallowest'  in  the  country." 

These  were  highly  coloured  times  in  all  respects. 

That  old  first  church  of  Quincy  had  in  its  his- 
tory many  homely  details  not  without  interest. 
It  rested  on  two  rows  of  hammered  stone.  It 
was  not  built  thus  at  first,  but  the  stone  founda- 
tion was  later  made  a  part  of  the  structure. 
At  that  time  the  town  decided  that  this  ham- 
mered stone  under  three  walls  of  the  church  was 
all  that  appearance  demanded.  This  left  the  east 
side  in  a  rough  condition,  and  that  was  the  side 
which  looked  toward  Thomas  Baxter's  house. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Wibard,  pastor  of  the  church,  boarded 
at  Baxter's,  and  the  rough,  unfinished  side  was 
continually  in  his  sight.  When  he  learned  of  the 
town's  decision  to  let  it  stand  thus  he  exclaimed, 
"  Why  should  not  my  side  be  hammered  stone,  too? 
It  must  be;  I  will  pay  for  it  myself." 

There  are  many  lovable,  generous  things  told 
of  this  same  preacher.     As  he  looked  over  the  tax 


ii8  Old  New  England  Churches 

lists  from  which  his  salary  was  prepared,  he  now 
and  again  would  erase  a  name  with  the  remark, 
"This  man  has  been  unfortunate"  or  "Such  an 
one  needs  the  money  more  than  I  do  "  and  would 
strike  out  the  name,  thereby  reducing  his  own 
income  greatly.  At  last  the  first  church  was 
sold  at  public  auction.  The  pulpit  brought 
three  dollars  and  the  stove  forty-two  dollars  and 
fifty  cents.  The  first  Sunday  after  the  old  church 
was  destroyed,  there  were  no  services  held  at  any 
place  in  the  town,  even  as  if  there  had  been  a 
death;  and  then  for  three  Sabbaths  before  the 
dedication  of  the  new  church  there  was  public 
worship  in  the  town  hall.  The  stone  in  the 
church  which  was  built  in  1827  was  taken  from 
President  John  Adams's  quarries  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  assisted  at  the  laying  of  the  cornerstone. 
Under  the  portico  of  the  church  in  a  granite 
tomb  are  the  remains  of  President  John  Adams 
and  Abigail  his  wife,  and  there,  too,  lie  the  re- 
mains of  J.  Q.  Adams  and  his  wife. 

In  Quincy,  as  elsewhere,  there  was  much  op- 
position to  Catholics,  and  the  prejudice  and  antag- 
onism were  so  profound  that  the  people  perfectly 
well  merited  George  Washington's  rebuke  delivered 
upon  his  arrival  in  Cambridge.     It  was  the  custom 


Quincy  Church,  Quincy,  Mass.  119 

frequently  to  bum  the  Pope  in  effigy,  and  Washing- 
ton felt  obliged  to  issue  the  following  order: 

"  November  5th.  As  the  Commander-in-Chief  has 
been  apprised  of  a  design  formed  for  the  obser- 
vance of  that  ridiculous  and  childish  custom  of 
burning  the  effigy  of  the  Pope,  he  cannot  help 
expressing  his  surprise  that  there  should  be 
officers  and  soldiers  in  the  army  so  void  of  common 
sense  as  not  to  see  the  impropriety  of  such  a  step 
at  this  juncture;  at  a  time  when  we  are  soliciting 
and  have  really  obtained  the  friendship  and 
alliance  of  the  people  of  Canada,  whom  we  ought 
to  consider  as  brethren  embarked  in  the  same 
cause — the  defence  of  the  general  liberty  of 
America.  At  this  juncture  and  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, to  be  insulting  their  religion  is  so 
monstrous  as  not  to  be  suffered  or  excused.  In- 
deed, instead  of  offering  the  most  remote  insult, 
it  is  our  duty  to  address  public  thanks  to  these, 
our  brethren,  as  to  them  we  are  indebted  for  every 
late  happy  success  over  the  common  enemy  in 
Canada." 

If  the  leaven  of  Virginian  high  breeding  had  only 
been  more  generally  insinuated  into  the  Puritans 
at  that  time,  the  result  might  have  been  all  for 
good,  and  much  disturbance  brought  about  by 
extraordinary  Puritan  intolerance  have  been 
avoided. 

However,  it  is  as  profitable  to  speculate  on 
the  result  if  Beelzebub  had  remained  an  archangel. 


OLD  SLIP  CHURCH,  HINGHAM,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  VII 
Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Massachusetts 

THE  first  meeting  house  was  probably  built 
for  Hingham  soon  after  the  settlement  was 
made  in  1635.  It  was  surrounded  by  the  usual 
stockade  and  from  the  very  beginning  it  had 
the  advantage  over  other  colonial  churches  of 
possessing  a  belfry  with  a  bell  in  it.  The  building 
was  erected  almost  before  the  fields  had  felt  the 
ploughshare ;  certainly  long  before  the  first  harvest 
was  reaped.  Hingham's  neighbours  were  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  and  they  exchanged  visits 
in  back-door  fashion  by  following  the  trail  that 
led  through  the  forest  from  one  town  to  another. 
Besides  its  church,  Hingham  was  supplied  with 
three  forts  and  garrison  houses,  because  the 
terror  of  King  Philip's  War  was  a  constant  re- 
minder of  the  little  town's  need  of  these  things. 

The  second  meeting  house,  structurally,  was 
simplicity  itself.  Here  was  preached  "The  Old 
Man's  Calendar,"  which  has  been  translated  into 

Dutch,  and  has  found  European  publication. 

123 


124  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  names,  Hobart,  Lincoln,  Thaxter,  Beal, 
Gushing,  Fearing,  Loring,  Hersey,  Whiton, 
Sprague  and  others  are  found  among  the  Hst  of 
first  citizens.  Here  as  in  most  of  the  colonies, 
the  first  settlers  gathered  under  an  oak  tree,  and 
in  Hingham  they  were  led  by  Peter  Hobart,  as 
pastor.  He  had  been  called  by  Governor  Win- 
throp  "a  bold  man"  who  "did  speak  his  mind." 
Four  of  his  fifteen  children  became  preachers. 
Peter  Hobart  was  vSucceeded  by  John  Norton,  and 
his  hesitancy  in  undertaking  this  parish  is  ex- 
pressed in  an  entry  in  Judge  Sewall's  diary: 

"  Went  to  Mr.  Norton  to  discourse  with  him  about 
coming  into  the  church.  He  told  me  he  waited 
to  see  whether  his  faith  were  of  the  occasion  of 
God's  spirit,  and  yet  often  said  that  he  had  very- 
good  hope  of  his  good  Estate.  .  .  .  He  said, 
was  unsettled,  had  thought  of  going  out  into  the 
country.  .  .  .  And  at  last,  that  he  was  for 
that  which  was  purely  independent.  I  urged  what 
that  was.  He  said  that  all  of  the  Church  were 
a  royal  Crusade,  all  of  them  Prophets  taught  by 
God's  spirit,  and  that  a  few  words  from  the  heart 
were  worth  a  great  deal:  intimating  the  benefit 
of  Christians  prophesying :  for  this  he  cited  Mr. 
Dell.     I  cannot  get  any  more." 

Marriage  (we  may  assume  it  was  marriage  since 
there  is  recorded  no  other  eventful  happening  in 


Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.        125 

the  pastor's  life  at  that  time)  inspired  the  follow- 
ing title  to  a  poem,  "A  Funeral  Elogy  Upon 
That  Patron  of  Virtue,  the  truly  pious,  careful 
&  matchless  Gentlewoman,  Mrs.  Ann  Bradstreet." 
It  were  courting  misfortune  to  investigate  the 
poem  further  than  its  title,  although  it  has  been 
called  by  a  historian  of  American  literature  "  a 
sorowful  and  stately  chant." 

When  the  citizens  of  Hingham  outgrew  the 
palisado,  they  seem  to  have  outgrown  their  meet- 
ing house  and  a  new  one  was  "rar'd"  in  1671. 
On  the  fifth  of  January  1671-72  a  town  meeting 
was  held  for  the  first  time  in  the  new  house  and 
on  the  Sunday  following,  occurred  its  first  use 
for  divine  service,  the  baptism  of  two  babies. 
To  erect  this  building  a  tax  had  been  levied  on  one 
hundred  and  forty-three  persons,  and  it  had  cost 
the  town  four  hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  with 
the  old  house  thrown  in.  This  is  no  small  in- 
vestment when  it  is  calculated  that  the  personal 
property  of  the  whole  Plymouth  Colony  did  not 
exceed  twelve  hundred  pounds.  Although  it 
was  now  a  time  of  peace  and  comparative  pros- 
perity in  these  settlements,  we  must  not  permit 
the  imagination  to  play  tricks  upon  us  and  present 
a  picture  of  rejoicing  or  even  of  moderate  gaiety. 


126  Old  New  England  Churches 

One  of  the  cruelest  of  Puritan  preachers,  the  Rev 
Nicholas  Noyes,  gives  an  account  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Parker:  that  "  once  on  hearing  some  others 
laugh  very  freely,  while  I  suppose  he  was  better 
busied  in  his  room  above  us,  he  came  down  and 
gravely  said  thus,  'Cousins,  I  wonder  you  can  be 
so  merry,  unless  you  are  sure  of  your  salvation.'  " 
A  forbidding  picture,  indeed! 

In  a  printed  address  by  Dr.  Charles  Eliot  Nor- 
ton this  phase  of  early  Puritan  piety  has  been 
pointed  out  with  an  editorial  exactness  to  be  found 
nowhere  else.  We  are  reminded  that  not  a  song, 
love  poem,  or  strain  of  secular  music  has  been 
handed  down  from  that  period;  that  the  creative 
and  poetic  imagination  was  without  soil  even  to 
sprout  in ;  and  that  in  the  writings  of  the  first  and 
second  generations  of  native  bom  New  Englanders 
(of  which  we  have  enough  from  which  to  draw  con- 
clusions) we  find  no  touch  of  the  observation  of 
Nature  nor  any  indication  of  pleasure  in  her  aspect. 
Ann  Bradstreet  sang  of  Philomel  "  chanting  a  most 
melodious  strain' '  on  the  banks  of  the  Merrimac,  but 
she  lacked  eyes  for  the  flowers  and  ears  for  the  birds. 
The  same  editor  directs  our  attention  to  the  single 
exception  which  proves  the  rule,  provided  "  by  the 
sedate,  stout-hearted,  provincial  Judge  Sewall." 


Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.         127 

In  those  days  men  went  out  of  doors  to  till  their 
fields,  to  shoot  the  deer  that  trespassed,  and  many 
never  returned:  silent,  cruel  Indian  war  methods 
went  on  all  about  them.  They  tilled  their  fields 
with  their  firelocks  by  their  sides,  and  all  space, 
not  already  peopled  with  physical  dangers,  was 
filled,  by  their  superstitions,  with  devils  that 
breathed  hellfire.  To  them  Satan  was  as  personal 
as  God,  and  we  learn  that  "  the  devil  had  doubt- 
less felt  more  than  ordinary  vexation  upon  the 
arrival  of  the  Christians  in  this  wilderness." 
When  we  read  of  Salem,  we  almost  accept  this 
notion.  If  he  did  not  resent  the  superior  devil- 
ishness  of  Salem  over  his  own  domain,  during  the 
witchcraft  period,  the  devil  lacked  discrimination. 

The  second  generation  under  this  gross,  theo- 
logical rule  was  necessarily  inferior  to  the  first. 
That  bom  on  American  soil  came  into  fixed  and 
disastrously  circumscribed  conditions,  the  result 
of  the  preceding  obstinate  and  intolerant  rule. 
The  fathers  we  may  reasonably  assume  had 
builded  not  better  but  worse  than  they  knew; 
because  they  had  been  university  men,  of  much 
reading  if  not  of  large  understanding.  When 
they  digressed  from  fairly  humane  practices  it 
was  because  of  an  overwhelming  egotism  rather 


128  Old  New  England  Churches 

than    an    overwhelming    conscientiousness;     but 

that  habit  of  thought  in  the  first  generation  be- 

* 

came  instinct  in  the  second — a  generation  isolated 
from  literature  and  completely  without  scientific 
knowledge  or  opportunity.  Here  is  a  chronicle 
of  superstition  that  can  hardly  be  called  a  literary 
note: 

"  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  younger,  one  of  the  magis- 
trates, having  many  books,  in  a  chamber  where 
there  was  com  of  divers  sorts,  had  among  them 
one  of  a  Greek  testament,  the  Psalms  and  a  com- 
mon prayer  book  bound  together.  He  found  the 
cornmon  prayer  eaten  with  mice,  every  leaf  of  it, 
and  not  any  of  the  two  others  touched,  nor  any 
other  of  his  books,  though  there  were  about  a 
thousand." 

This  evidence  that  when  the  cat's  away  the  mice 
will  play  was  quite  enough  at  that  period  of  New- 
England  development  to  relegate  the  prayer 
book  to  the  list  of  heresies,  were  it  not  there  al- 
ready. In  Judge  Sewall's  family  we  find  the 
strongest  evidence  of  really  human  impulses  and 
natural  tendencies  to  be  got  from  that  time.  He 
wrote : 

"  When  I  came  in,  past  7.  at  night,  my  wife  met 
me  in  the  Entry  and  told  me  Betty  had  surprised 
them  ...  [It  seems  Betty  Sewall  had  given 
some  signs  of  dejection  and  sorrow]  but  a  little 


Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.         129 

after  this  she  cried  out  in  an  amazing  cry  which 
cus'd  all  the  family  to  cry  too;  her  mother  asked 
the  reason;  she  gave  none;  at  last  she  said  she 
was  afraid  she  would  goe  to  hell,  her  sins  were 
not  pardoned." 

Then  follows  this  poor  child's  conscience-question- 
ings, started  by  a  sermon  of  Cotton  Mather's,  and 
her  self-immolations  offer  to  our  consideration 
a  disjointed  theology  worthy  of  the  longest  and 
most  superstitious  head  in  the  settlement.  It 
was  not  the  least  of  Cotton  Mather's  cruel  sins — 
to  have  caused  little  Betty  to  cry  on  account  of 
her  soul  on  that  January  night. 

When  Norton  preached  in  the  Hingham  church 
a  sermon  for  which  it  was  ordered  that  thanks 
be  given  him,  old  Judge  Sewall  made  the  note, 
"  I  was  with  a  committee  in  the  morn,  and  so  by 
God's  good  providence  absent  when  Mr.  Corwin 
and  Cushing  were  ordered  to  thank  Mr.  Norton 
for  his  sermon  and  desire  a  copy."  These  human 
utterances  amid  inhuman  surroundings  would 
"out"  in  spite  of  Puritan  theology  and  the  uni- 
versal devil — -or  possibly  because  of  him.  If  so 
we  are  inspired  to  cry,  "Good  devil!" 

Some  of  the  very  best  reflections  of  that  time 
and  their  meaning  to  humanity  are  set  forth  from 
the  ministerial  point  of  view  by  Dr.  Charles  Eliot 


130  Old  New  England  Churches 

Noiton  in  his  anniversary  address.  They  show 
an  appreciation  of  spiritual  values  not  common 
among  those  who  lived  according  to  dogma. 
Those  people  had  come  to  New  England  for  a 
purpose  which  was  made  holy  by  the  dangers  they 
braved  to  support  it,  but  after  a  generation, 
because  this  purpose  had  been  carried  too  far, 
we  beheld  the  wholly  natural  result:  a  period  of 
degeneracy.  Even  the  most  active  in  the  conduct 
of  this  time  had,  in  the  interests  of  self-preserv^a- 
tion,  to  acknowledge  the  degenerate  tendency. 

But  to  return  to  the  local  affairs  of  Hingham. 
The  pastorate  of  Ebenezer  Gay,  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  College,  and  of  the  preacher  who  pre- 
ceded him,  stretched  over  a  hundred  years.  It 
was  during  Ebenezer  Gay's  administration  that 
Benjamin  Lincoln's  son  Benjamin  was  baptised 
in  the  meeting  house.  The  Lincoln  family  were 
of  the  original  stock  of  the  town,  represented  its 
public  spirit,  and  figured  in  much  of  the  economic 
history  of  Hingham.  Washington  said  of  General 
Benjamin  Lincoln,  "  He  is  an  actiVe-spirited  sensible 
man."  With  Dr.  Gay's  accession,  theology  be- 
came less  sombre  in  tone.  It  ceased  to  be  a  sin  to 
wear  the  hair  long;  youth  might  dance  and  not 
be  damned;  laugh  and  not  be  lost.     Even  so  late 


Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.        131 

as  1755  the  problem  of  women's  millinery — 
should  it  be  on  or  off  in  public  places — was  a 
matter  of  large  importance.  It  was  not  permissible 
for  the  unconverted  to  sing  psalms — ^which  would 
seem  logically  to  account  for  a  large  number 
of  unregenerate.  In  1855  Calvin  Lincoln, 
a  descendant  of  Peter  Hobart,  became  associate 
pastor  of  Hingham  church,  and  he  served  until 
the  morning  of  September  8,  1881;  he  died 
during  the  service  held  that  day  for  the  recovery 
of  President  Garfield. 

In  the  same  meeting  house,  in  the  cold  com- 
fortless days  of  its  early  history,  the  good  folk 
of  Hingham  were  compelled  to  stamp  upon  the 
floor  and  strike  their  hands  together  in  order  to 
keep  warm,  thereby  drowning  the  sermon  without 
being  able  to  make  the  excuse  that  this  noise  was 
applause.  To  applaud  anything  in  this  world 
at  that  time  was  a  sin. 

When  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  came  into  use,  most 
of  the  congregation  were  unable  to  read  it,  and 
therefore  "lining  the  hymn"  was  practised  in 
Hingham  church,  as  in  others.  The  pitch  pipe 
that  was  first  used  gave  way  to  the  flute  and 
ultimately  to  the  clarionet.  There  was  no  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  in  this  house  and  the  zeal  of 


132  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  preacher  often  prompted  the  turning  of  the 
hour  glass  until  the  sands  had  run  out  twice. 
One  preacher,  probably  not  of  Hingham,  dis- 
played a  jocosity  which  smacks  of  latter  day 
spirit  rather  than  of  former  day  piety.  His  con- 
gregation becoming  restless,  he  cried,  "  I  know 
you  are  good  fellows;  stay  and  take  another 
glass";  and  up  he  turned  the  hour  glass.  Some- 
thing even  better  is  told  of  a  preacher  who  stood 
in  the  Hingham  pulpit,  which  was  on  the  side  of 
the  church  next  the  cemetery.  Upon  seeing 
many  of  his  congregation  asleep  he  gently  re- 
marked that  "those  behind  him  could  hear  as 
well  as  those  before  him."  Another  who  came 
as  a  substitute  to  the  Hingham  pulpit  had  reached 
his  "seventeenthly,"  and  had  at  last  announced 
"finally,"  when  an  old  farmer  declared  his  satis- 
faction, because  the  milking  had  to  be  done,  it 
was  six  miles  home  and  he  was  afraid  he  should 
not  get  there  on  time.  The  tithing  man  was 
rampant  in  Hingham  and  there  is  one  illustration 
of  reflex  action  bringing  into  disgrace  at  least 
one  man,  who  was  hauled  before  the  Court  "  for 
common  sleeping  during  the  public  exercises  upon 
the  Lord's  day,  and  for  striking  him  that  waked 
him";    and  since  he  was  not  sorry  he  was  sen- 


Old  sup  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.        133 

tenced  to  be  "severely  whipped."  Whipping  was 
a  favourite  means  of  discipline.  Even  the  aristo- 
crats caught  it,  though  it  was  legally  forbidden 
that  "  any  true  gentleman  be  punished  with  a  whip 
unless  his  crime  be  very  shameful  and  his  course 
of  life  vicious  and  profligate." 

In  the  economy  of  na4:ions  the  crime  which 
threatens  to  undermine  the  common  welfare,  and 
has  a  tendency  to  become  most  prevalent,  is 
most  severely  punished.  Witness  the  crime  of 
horse  stealing  in  the  West,  punishable  by  death 
without  ceremony,  because  in  that  community 
it  was  un  peche  mignon;  for  no  man  could  get  on 
and  grow  up  with  the  country  without  a  horse. 
Since  a  man's  very  existence  depended  upon  a 
horse,  horse  stealing  became  the  unpardonable 
sin  of  the  West.  Just  so,  we  are  able  to  deduce 
the  darling  crime  of  the  Puritan  fathers,  when  we 
look  over  the  Connecticut  blue  laws  and  classify 
their  punishments.  Some  are  bom  with  fathers 
and  some  acquire  them,  but  we  are  inclined  to 
resent  having  our  Puritan  fathers  thrust  upon  us, 
when  we  read  of  their  degenerate  crimes ;  and  we 
must  conclude  since  death  was  their  penalty,  the 
tendency  to  err  thus  was  so  persistent  that  naught 
but  killing  would  stop  it. 


134  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  sermons  in  Hingham  were  frequently  taken 
down  by  one  Matthew  Hawke,  in  shorthand; 
which  proves  that  this  modem  convenience  of 
stenography  was  in  relatively  ancient  use.  There 
was  a  stool  of  repentance  as  well  as  the  tithing 
man's  rod;  and  there  was  open  confession — to 
which  the  tithing  man's  rod  must  have  been  as 
honey  to  vinegar.  The  weekly  lecture  prevailed 
in  Hingham  as  elsewhere,  under  such  auspices 
as  made  legislative  interference  necessary.  It 
brought  about  the  edict  that  "general  assemblies 
must  ordinarily  break  up  in  such  season  that  people 
who  dwell  a  mile  or  two  off  might  get  home  by 
daylight." 

"The  parson  was  the  person  in  that  day."  By 
speaking  against  the  parson,  a  man  made  himself 
subject  to  having  his  ears  cut  off.  Everyone 
had  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  parson, 
yet  he  managed  to  starve  painfully!  If  the 
people  did  not  come  to  hear  him  they  were  fined 
five  shillings  for  each  offence,  and  there  was  no 
allowance  for  holidays.  But  the  parson  escaped 
weddings  and  funerals;  because  marriages  be- 
came affairs  for  the  magistrates,  and  there  were 
no  prayers  for  the  dead. 

Peter  Hobart  was  sadly  taken  to  task  because 


Law.  ^ 


Photograph  by  E.  E.  SoderhoUz,  Boston 

THE  "  OLD  SHIP "  MEETING  HOUSE,  HINGHAM,  MASSACHUSETTS 

Where  sermons  were  transcribed  in  shorthand  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  and  where  ministers  were  forbidden  to  per- 
form "the  solemnity  of  marriage" 


Old  Slip  Church,  Hingham,  Mass.        135 

he  went  to  Boston  to  officiate  at  the  marriage  of 
some  man  of  his  parish.  Governor  Winthrop 
says,  "  We  were  not  willing  to  bring  in  the  English 
custom  of  ministers  performing  it  (the  solemnity 
of  marriage)."  There  seems  to  be  discrepancy 
somewhere,  probably  in  the  phraseology.  Was 
there  not  supposed  to  be  some  solemnity  about 
preachers?    And  if  not,  why  not? 

The  familiar  nomenclature  which  distinguished 
the  days  of  the  week  was  carefully  avoided 
because  of  its  relation  to  heathenism,  and  thus 
the  days  became  first,  second,  third,  and  the 
like;  and  the  months  became  numerical  also. 
To  be  expelled  from  the  church  was  to  be 
expelled  from  the  colony.  If  you  were  with- 
out ecclesiastical  law,  you  were  without  civil 
law,  and  became  an  outcast.  Alphabetical  pun- 
ishments were  common.  Drunkards  wore  sus- 
pended from  the  neck  the  letter  D  in  red  cloth 
set  upon  white;  a  Quaker  was  branded  with 
the  letter  H  to  notify  the  world  of  his  heresy; 
and  the  tramp  wore  his  brand  of  R  signifying 
rogue,  surely  in  red  and  upon  white,  since  it  was 
branded  upon  his  left  shoulder;  and  who  forgets 
the  scarlet  letter  A! 


FIRST  CHURCH,  LEXINGTON,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
First  Church,  Lexington,  Massachusetts 

ON  THE  night  of  April  i8,  1775,  John  Han- 
cock and  Sam  Adams  went  to  bed  dead 
tired  after  a  close  confab  at  Clark's  on  the 
subject  that  all  the  New  World  was  lying 
awake  over.  When  Jonas  Clark  had  barred  the 
door,  the  word  went  forth  that  Hancock  and 
Adams  wanted  to  "sleep  it  out." 

Over  in  Cambridge  the  committee  of  safety 
still  sat,  because,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  things  looked 
ominous.  Hancock  and  Adams  were  in  none  too 
good  odour  with  the  British,  and  their  friends 
were  anxious  about  them.  Hancock  had  snored 
for  three  hours  and  Adams  was  not  far  behind, 
when  the  whole  town  got  out  of  bed:  Revere 
was  heard  coming  down,  while  fully  a  mile  away, 
with  Joseph  Warren's  message  to  Hancock  and 
Adams : 

"  There  were  eight  or  nine  officers  of  the  King's 
troops  seen  just  at  nightfall  going  along  the  road 
toward  Lexington.  Their  manner  was  suspicious 
and  it  was  suspected  that  they  were  out  upon 
some  evil  design." 

139 


I40  Old  New  England  Churches 

That  was  enough:  Lexington  got  into  its  breeches! 
The  moment  had  come  when  the  shot  that  rang 
round  the  world  was  to  be  fired. 

The  men  told  the  women  folks  not  to  be  scared 
— it  would  be  all  right;  but  they'd  better  keep 
themselves  locked  up  while  the  men  went 
over  to  Dudley's  tavern  to  see  about  it.  It  had 
taken  the  Minute  men  thirty  seconds  to  get  there, 
and  it's  queer  that  after  that  night,  when  they 
broke  their  own  record,  they  were  not  reborn  to 
history,  with  59  seconds  knocked  off! 

Since  that  night  many  people  have  agitated 
themselves  over  the  "  shot  that  rang."  Some  say 
it  did  and  some  say  it  didn't.  It  is  easily  enough 
settled:  it  did!  Lexington  was  on  the  run — 
she  couldn't  help  it  with  all  England  after  her  at 
two -o'clock  in  the  morning,  but  she  raised  her 
garden  tools,  turned  round  and  fired  the  shot 
that  rang.  "A  handful"  of  dead  men  on  her 
spring-green  Common  meant  more  of  revolution 
than  would  ten  thousand  live  ^men  behind  the 
guns:  dead  men  count  when  they  die  at  the 
right  time,  in  the  right  place. 

This  all  happened  nearly  a  hundred  years  after 
Lexington  built  her  first  rneeting  house. 

After  many  efforts  to  break  away  from  the 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  141 

mother  church  at  Cambridge,  Lexington  had  finally 
established  its  own  parish  and  its  own  house. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  town  should  "  choose  three 
or  five  persons  to  assess  their  inhabitants  for  the 
support  and  maintenance  of  their  minister  as 
also  a  constable  or  arbitor  to  gather  the  same  by- 
warrant  from  said  assessors."  The  first  meeting 
of  this  new  parish  was  held  on  April  22,  1692. 
David  Fisk  was  clerk  and  the  parish  resolved  to 
invite  Mr.  Benjamin  Estabrook  to  preach  to  them 
for  one  year.  The  meeting  house  was  not  yet 
built  but  it  was  begun.  It  was  a  rude  structure 
with  shingled  roof;  it  had  no  steeple  and  was 
unpainted.  It  had  a  "turriott"  near  where  the 
bell  was  hung,  and  probably  this  "turriott"  was 
sentinelled  for  the  safe-guarding  of  the  people. 
The  Lexington  folk  who  had  fought  a  long  time 
for  this  church  of  their  own,  sat  in  their  meeting 
house  upon  plain  benches — ^wind  and  weather 
coming  through  the  unchinked  spaces  of  the 
rude  structure — and  there  were  holes  conveniently 
left  in  the  floor  through  which  the  congregation 
spat.  The  house  was  galleried  and  had  separate 
stairs  for  men  and  women,  while  the  church  seats 
were  apportioned  according  to  "  age,  dignity,  and 
wealth,"  a  precedence  being  given  to  age,  which 


142  Old  New  England  Churches 

we  do  not  find  in  the  seat  apportionment  of  other 
parishes.  This  exceedingly  wise  and  proper  ar- 
rangement seems  frequently  to  have  miscarried; 
and  the  reason  is  obvious. 

From  the  beginning,  Lexington  had  been  bound 
to  be  prosperous — prosperous  by  force  if  need  be; 
yet  prosperous.  Hence  she  warned  out  of  town 
all  who  seemed  likely  to  become  a  public  charge. 

Notwithstanding  this  severity,  we  find  evi- 
dences of  a  touching  gallantry  in  Lexington. 
William  Reed  asked  that  he  be  allowed  to  put  in 
a  "settee"  for  good  wife  Reed;  and  several  other 
men  built  "handsome  seats  against  the  wall" 
for  their  wives.  The  sexes  being  separated  these 
men  could  not  share  the  comfort,  thus  theirs  was 
a  disinterested  benevolence. 

That  first  meeting  house  cost  about  three  hun- 
dred dollars,  nearly  the  price  of  a  properly  equipped 
up-to-date  woodshed,  and  this  sum  was  con- 
tributed by  forty-three  persons  bearing  twenty- 
two  different  family  names.  The  people  of  Lex- 
ington (Cambridge  farms)  were  not  gathered  in 
the  shadow  of  the  meeting  house  but  scattered 
about  on  lonely  farms,  frequently  with  swamps  be- 
tween and  farms  difficult  of  access ;  but  near  at  hand 
were  the  stocks,  because  where  the  church  stood, 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  143 

must  be  placed  the  means  for  enforcing  its  dis- 
cipline. At  the  first  parish  meeting,  when  Mr. 
Estabrook  was  chosen  minister,  it  was  voted 
"  that  we  will  give  forty  pounds  a  year,  half  in 
money,  viz.,  twenty  pounds,  and  twenty  pounds 
in  paper  and  other  money  prise  and  that  it  should 
be  for  his  salary  and  the  supply  for  his  enter- 
tainments." Before  he  finally  settled,  a  parson- 
age was  built,  and  it  was  voted  "that  the  house 
built  for  Mr.  Benjamin  Estabrook  should  be  left 
to  him  freely  without  any  obligation  but  his 
settling  with  us,  and  his  taking  offis  with  us, 
and  his  abiding  with  us." 

Then  came  dissensions:  in  the  precedence 
given  to  age  over  dignity,  to  dignity  over  wealth, 
in  seating  the  congregation,  so  much  distur- 
bance was  created  that  it  became  necessary  to 
readjust  the  method.  The  committee  finally 
determined  to  give  precedence  to  real  estate 
holders  and  to  the  heads  of  families.  Further- 
more everyone  was  obliged  to  record  his  age 
before  a  date  set  by  the  selectmen,  that  the  seat- 
ing might  be  fairly  done.  Thus  was  a  premium  put 
on  lying  by  trying  to  establish  the  qualification  of 
priority — ^which  was  hardly  necessary,  if  wealth 
and  the  patriarch  were  to  be  given  first  place. 


144  Old  New  England  Churches 

In  course  of  time,  the  congregation  became 
vain  and  impatient,  and  it  was  decided: 

"  That  the  meeting  house  should  be  repayered 
and  that  the  bodey  of  seats  shal  be  driven  back, 
and  that  there  shal  be  a  table  set  up  before  the 
body  of  seats  the  whol  length  of  the  body  of  seats ; 
and  that  the  meeting  house  shall  be  seelled  up 
with  pine  boards,  and  handsome  seats  for  women 
be  made  on  each  side  of  the  meeting  house,  raised 
to  convenient  height  of  the  church;  that  on  the 
east  side  next  to  the  door  shall  be  for  Mrs.  Esta- 
brook." 

At  the  same  time  the  young  minister's  salary 
was  slightly  increased.  On  October  21,  1696, 
the  time  of  his  ordination,  Mr.  Estabrook  "made 
a  good  sermon  on  Jer.  iii:  15,"  for  Judge  Sewall 
made  a  note  of  this  in  his  diary  and  he  adds:  "  Mr. 
Estabrook  the  father  managed  this,  having  prayed 
excellently.  Mr.  Wilier  gave  the  charge,  Mr. 
Fox  the  right  hand  of  fellowship." 

The  town  voted  at  one  time  "that  no  writing 
of  a  secular  concernment  should  be  put  up  at 
the  meeting  house  for  the  people  to  read  on  Sun- 
day"; which  meant  that  no  notices,  given  by  the 
selectmen,  of  muffs  lost  by  careless  gentlemen, 
par  example,  or  any  notification  whatsoever  of 
public  concerns,  could  be  posted  on  the  church 
door.     Colonial    affairs    had     advanced    beyond 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  145 

that  time  when  wolves'  heads  were  nailed 
to  the  wall  with  a  memorandum  of  bounty  due. 
After  Mr.  Fox  came  an  ancestor  of  the  John 
Hancock  who  was  asleep  in  Jonas  Clark's  house 
the  night  Paul  Revere  rode.  The  Rev.  Carlton 
Staples  in  discussing  the  rigid  classification  of 
the  citizens  of  that  little  community  says: 

"  John  Hancock  could  not  have  stood  very  high 
in  such  a  catalogue  since  he  was  the  son  of  a 
Cambridge  shoemaker.  .  .  when  he  came  to 
preach  here,  and  looked  upon  the  congregation 
from  the  high  pulpit  he  could  tell  at  a  glance 
where  the  people  of  financial  and  social  standing 
sat,  whether  the  Bowmans  were  richer  than  the 
Bridges,  or  the  Munroes  than  the  Reeds,  or  the 
Cutlers  than  the  Wellingtons,  or  the  Muzzeys 
than  the  Fisks." 

But  John  Hancock  belonged  to  that  aristocracy 
which  sets  men  apart  from  others,  all  the  world 
over — the  aristocracy  of  intellect.  He  was  a 
Harvard  graduate  and  a  man  of  much  ability. 
Here  he  settled  and  established  a  line  which  gave 
the  country  nearly  thirty  ministers,  teachers, 
college  professors  and  other  professional  men. 
These  were  the  days  when  "a  painful  preacher" 
stood  highest  in  public  esteem  and  "painful" 
preaching  implied  long  sermons,  profound  dis- 
quisitions on  Puritan  theology  and  its  "copious 


146  Old  New  England  Churches 

application  to  the  state  of  the  hearers."  We 
infer  that  John  Hancock  was  of  this  "painful" 
class,  because  he  preached  twice  a  day,  with  an 
hour  between  discourses,  writing  out  his  sermons 
with  great  particularity;  and  he  mentions  that 
"preaching  without  manuscript  and  good  sense 
seldom  go  together." 

That  first  scholarly  preacher,  John  Hancock, 
was  a  man  of  critical  acumen,  for  in  speaking  of 
the  Noachian  deluge  he  queried, 

"How  is  it  possible,  if  the  flood  was  universal, 
for  enough  water  to  have  fallen  in  forty  days  to 
have  covered  the  tops  of  the  highest  mountains?" 

Then  follow  some  mathematical  calculations 
proving  that  forty  years  of  rainfall  would  have 
been  necessary  to  achieve  this;  and  next  he  asks 
— ^like  the  Scotchman,  who  thanked  God  he  was 
not,  on  a  certain  point,  open  to  conviction : 

"What  became  of  all  that  additional  water? 
But  if  it  was  local,  confined  to  Judaea,  what  use 
was  there  of  building  the  ark  to  save  Noah  and 
his  family?" 

All  of  this  does  not  detract  from  our  admiration 
of  the  Rev.  John  Hancock's  intellectual  capacity; 
but  it  is  a  wonder  that  the  gentleman  was  not 
hanged!     This    was    the  story  of  the   Lexington 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  147 

pulpit!  All  the  world  knows  the  story  of  its 
patriotism! 

In  early  colonial  days  the  preachers  were  the 
legal  advisors  as  well,  that  being  a  time  when  law- 
yers were  not  permitted  to  live  in  the  community, 
their  profession  being  objectionable.  It  was  in 
his  pseudo-legal  capacity  that  John  Hancock 
settled  a  dispute  in  a  manner  characteristic  not 
only  of  himself  but  of  the  time: 

"Now,  Reuben  and  Joseph,  your  line  runs 
there  and  there  let  it  run  forever.  That  is  your 
land,  Joseph,  and  that  is  your  land,  Reuben; 
and  let  us  have  no  more  quarrelling  about  this 
matter." 

This  straight-a-way,  one-man  opinion  was  by  no 
means  unsatisfactory  when  the  verdict  was  that 
of  the  man  of  highest  moral  and  mental  attain- 
ment in  all  the  region. 

In  Lexington  the  Bible  was  not  read  as  a  part 
of  the  service  until  many  years  after  the  meeting 
house  was  established.  Confessions  of  a  gruesome 
nature  were  made  there,  perhaps  the  most  fre- 
quent being  for  the  violation  of  the  seventh 
commandment.  There  was  a  confession  of  the 
killing  of  a  neighbour's  cow  and  another  of  in- 
temperance.    Each  one  seems  to  have  been  elab- 


148  Old  New  England  Churches 

orately  written  out  and  read  in  open  church. 
Of  all  the  colonial  church  administrations  Lexing- 
ton's was  to  be  noted  among  the  most  liberal. 
In  an  anecdote  of  the  splendid  forceful  John 
Mahu,  which  shows  much  of  his  downright,  rugged 
methods,  it  is  related  that  in  his  advancing 
years  some  of  the  parish  wished  to  have  el- 
ders appointed  to  assist  him  with  his  duties. 
After  listening  attentively  to  the  opinions  of 
two  of  the  deacons,  he  said,  "  I  suppose  you 
will  be  willing  to  accept  the  office  yourselves?" 
And  they  assented.  "  Do  you  know  what  elders 
are  required  to  do?"  asked  the  parson.  The 
deacons  answered  that  they  did  not  but  would  be 
glad  to  learn.  "  Well,  they  are  to  groom,  saddle, 
and  bridle  the  minister's  horse  when  he  wishes 
to  ride ;  bring  it  to  the  door  and  hold  the  stirrup 
for  him  to  mount;  and  when  he  goes  to  other 
towns  on  ministerial  duties,  to  accompan}?-  him 
and  pay  the  expenses." — ^The  deacons  withdrew 
the  motion. 

Mahu's  sense  of  humour  cut  both  ways.  He 
was  calling  upon  a  well-to-do  parishioner  and  was 
asked  to  partake  of  refreshments.  An  opulent- 
looking  cheese  was  brought  on  and  he  was  re- 
quested to  help  himself. 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  149 

"But,  madam,"  the  parson  asked,  "where  am 
I  to  cut  this  fine  cheese?" 

"Anywhere  you  please,  sir." 

"Well  then,  I  will  cut  it  at  home."— The 
emotions  of  the  lady  are  not  recorded. 

This  thinker,  wit,  epigrammatist,  and  truly  good 
man  served  the  parish  for  nearly  fifty-five  years. 

It  was  not  until  its  incorporation  as  the  town 
of  Lexington,  instead  of  Cambridge  Farms,  that 
a  new  meeting  house  was  built.  It  cost  about  five 
hundred  pounds  and  was  occupied  first  in  October, 
1714;  but  still  the  Lexington  congregation  sat  with- 
out heat  and  beneath  no  steeple. 

Jonas  Clark  followed  John  Hancock  in  the  pul- 
pit. Lexington  seems  to  have  been  peculiarly 
blessed  with  wise  leaders,  men  of  liberal  thought, 
and  it  now  was  approaching  the  moment  destined 
to  establish  an  extraordinary  period  in  history — 
April,  1775. 

From  the  inauguration  of  the  second  church 
building  we  begin  to  feel  the  rapid  pulse  of  col- 
onial state  affairs  and  to  smell  the  powder  of  the 
Revolution.  From  this  moment  church  and  sec- 
ular histor}^  become  so  involved,  so  intimate, 
that  to  speak  of  one  is  to  reveal  the  other.  Lex- 
ington was  called  upon  ten  years  before  Paul 


150  Old  New  England  Churches 

Revere  rode  down,  to  decide  what  instruction 
the  town  should  give  to  Great  Britain  in  regard 
to  the  Stamp  Act.  It  was  Jonas  Clark  who  wrote 
these  instructions  and  presented  them  to  William 
Reed,  the  representative  of  the  town.  The  papers 
reveal  Mr.  Clark  as  a  statesman  of  parts,  as  well 
as  a  minister  of  religion.  He  stood  in  the  rear  of 
his  church  and  was  an  eye-witness  to  that  early 
morning  fight  in  '75.  Next  day  he  preached 
about  it,  and  he  also  wrote  a  narrative  to  append 
to  the  sermon  which  is  altogether  the  most  in- 
spiring account  ever  written.  It  is  presented 
with  all  the  particularity  of  an  eye-witness,  and 
probably  of  a  participant;  for  who  doubts  that 
every  preacher  in  those  days  fit  to  carry  a  Bible 
carried  a  gun. 

Jonas  Clark's  theology  seems  not  to  have  made 
him  unchristian,  and  if  less  progressive  than 
Christ  he  was  more  progressive  than  his  pre- 
decessor, John  Hancock.  It  was  this  second 
meeting  house  which  witnessed  "the  birth  of 
American  liberty";  but  in  1794  Lexington  felt 
the  need  of  something  finer,  and  at  last  it  de- 
clared for  pews,  a  steeple,  and  a  bell  which  should 
toll  a  curfew,  and  toll  too  for  the  dead.  Here 
also   we   have   the   first    account    of    a   singing 


'Oxmt    eve 


Photograph  by  B.  E.  Whiicher,  Lexington,  Afass. 
FIRST  PARISH  CHURCH,  LEXINGTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 
Whose  meeting  houses  have  been  the  scene  of  much  Revolutionary  story,  and  are  most  intimately  allied  with  war  history 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  151 

school — that  parent  of  the  church  choir.  Pres- 
ently, Dr.  Watts 's  hymns  were  chosen,  and  Rob- 
ert Harrington,  Jr. ,  set  the  tunes.  Just  before  giv- 
ing up  the  second  meeting  house  the  fall  vote  was 
cast,  marking  the  introduction  of  the  Bible  as  a 
part  of  the  church  service.  This  happening  came 
with  the  present  of  a  Bible  from  Governor 
Hancock.  It  was  a  large,  handsome  volume  and 
the  appreciation  of  this  new  glory  doubtless  in- 
spired Lexington  folk  to  let  "the  Scriptures  be 
read  as  a  part  of  divine  service  for  public  worship 
for  the  future."  The  ministry  of  John  Hancock 
and  Jonas  Clark  covered  more  than  a  hundred 
years.  The  last  memorandum  in  Jonas  Clark's 
diary  is  "Finished  haying  to-day." 

The  Revolution  may  almost  be  classed  with 
the  religious  wars  because  "  almost  everywhere 
men  looked  upon  the  war  as  a  holy  war."  Samuel 
Adams  said,  "This  union  among  the  colonies, 
and  warmth  of  affection,  can  be  attributed  to 
nothing  less  than  the  agency  of  the  Supreme 
Being."  Everywhere  in  these  New  England 
churches  there  reigned  preachers  imbued  with 
warlike  spirit,  preaching  war  and  resistance. 
Men  went  forth  to  battle  from  under  the  hand 
raised  in  benediction.     They  marched  impressed 


152  Old  New  England  Churches 

that  they  fought  first  for  God,  since  they  had 
estabhshed  themselves  for  reHgious  Hberty  be- 
fore they  had  battled  for  civil  right. 

When  news  of  the  Lexington  fight  reached  a 
little  neighbouring  town  one  Sunday  afternoon,  sig- 
nal shots  were  fired,  men  took  their  firelocks,  bade 
their  families  farewell,  and  hurried  to  the  dea- 
con's yard.  There  the  old  preacher,  standing 
among  them,  read  from  the  Bible,  offered  a 
prayer,  invoked  a  blessing  and  then  "twenty 
men  with  knapsacks  on  their  backs  and  muskets 
on  their  shoulders  marched  on  forth  to  Boston," 
two  hundred  miles  away.  Lexington  history 
honours  such  names  as  Jedediah  Munroe  who, 
wounded  in  the  morning,  rode  in  the  afternoon 
to  spread  the  alarm  among  the  citizens;  and 
Jonas  Parker  of  whom  Everett  says,  "History, 
Roman  history,  does  not  furnish  an  example  of 
bravery  that   outshines  that   of  Jonas   Parker." 

It  was  the  art  of  war  which  the  colonists  had 
learned  in  the  enemy's  service,  that  was  to  undo  the 
enemy;  yet  when  a  battle  was  lost,  the  Puritans 
saw  God's  chastening  hand;  when  a  battle  was 
won,  they  rejoiced  in  the  evidence  of  His  favour. 
Thus  the  cry  was  still :  "  Dieu  et  mon  droit! " 

At  last  the  Revolution  ceased  and  there  again 


First  Church,  Lexington,  Mass.  153 

at  Dudley's  tavern  Lexington  churchgoers  warmed 
themselves  in  winter, — the  women  in  the  parlour, 
where  they  ate  their  lunches,  and  the  men  in  the 
barroom  where  they  took  flip  and  gossiped  about 
the  war,  about  military  victories  past,  civil  vic- 
tories to  come,  and  who  can  say  what  dreams 
of  ambition  came  to  those  men  of  the  New  World 
at  a  time  when  every  man  was  monarch! 

People  now  began  to  relax.  The  reaction  was 
well  nigh  hysterical.  The  days  were  only  just 
passed  when  the  pulpit  preached  "  Let  the  young 
woman  refuse  to  give  her  heart  and  hand  to  the 
young  man  who  will  not  give  his  heart  and  hand 
to  the  war  for  the  independence  of  the  state." 

War  ever  breeds  a  race  of  patriots,  but  the 
Revolution  did  more.  It  brought  recovery  from 
a  frightful  degeneracy  that  theology  in  the  hands 
of  the  Puritans  was  promoting.  Lexington  meeting 
house  never  better  fulfilled  its  mission  of  saving  men 
than  on  the  morning  of  that  fight  on  the  Common 
when  Parker  shouted  to  his  soldiers,  "  Every  man 
of  you  who  is  equipped,  follow  me!  and  those  who 
are  not  equipped,  go  into  the  meeting  house  and 
furnish  yourselves  from  the  magazine  and  imme- 
diately join  the  company. ' '  The  meeting  house  was 
just  as  useful  as  an  arsenal  as  it  had  been  as  a  church. 


FIRST  CHURCH,  DEDHAM,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  IX 
First  Church,  Dedham,  Massachusetts 

THE  first  meeting  house  was  established  in 
Dedham  July  i6,  1637.  The  first  preacher 
was  Mr.  John  AUin  and  he  ministered  to  thirty 
families.  Dedham,  unlike  most  of  the  settlements, 
formed  her  civil  institutions  before  she  established 
her  church;  but  in  Dedham,  as  in  New  Haven, 
the  settlers  first  worshipped  under  a  spreading 
tree,  and  did  not  wait  for  the  erection  of  its  meet- 
ing house.  The  congregation  of  Dedham,  however, 
was  migratory  in  that  it  identified  its  early  meetings 
with  no  one  spot,  but  moved  from  grove  to  grove. 
Legend  has  it  that  the  tree  where  the  first  worship 
was  held  was  on  the  east  side  of  D wight's  brook, 
and  another  tradition  tells  us  that  it  stood 
where  later  the  meeting  house  was  built. 

A  little  before  Davenport  went  to  New  Haven 
to  hold  his  first  meeting  in  Robert  Newman's 
bam,  a  committee  was  chosen  in  Dedham  to 
"contrive  the  frame  of  the  meeting  house  to  be 
in  length  thirty-six  feet  and  twenty  feet  in  breadth, 

and  between  the  upper  and  nether  sills  in  the 

157 


158  Old  New  England  Churches 

sides  to  be  twelve  feet."  The  inhabitants  were 
to  contribute  part  of  the  lumber,  the  rest  was  to 
be  paid  for.  Since  the  "going"  was  most  un- 
favourable in  February,  when  the  vote  was  taken, 
it  was  decided  that  the  timbers  were  to  be  loaned 
by  the  citizens,  to  whom  the  town  would  give  a 
bond  to  replace  them  when  needed.  After  the  site 
for  this  meeting  house  was  chosen,  it  was  changed, 
for  the  "  loving  satisfaction  unto  some  neighbours," 
to  the  east  side  of  the  river  which  was  to  be  known 
long  after  as  Dwight's  Brook,  and  building  lots 
near  the  church  were  given  to  those  who  lived 
at  a  distance.  John  Allin  was  among  the  first 
thus  to  "homestead."  When  it  came  to  the 
meeting  house  roof,  the  town  delegated  certain 
persons  to  "mowe,  gather  up  and  bring  it 
[material  for  thatch]  home"  with  such  assis- 
tance as  they  might  need,  to  be  had  "  at  the  town 
charge."  But  years  were  to  elapse  before  the 
first  meeting  house  should  be  finished,  and  it  was 
not  until  1647  ^^^^  ^^^  aesthetic  development 
of  the  town  had  reached  that  point  where 
the  citizens  should  "  declare  that  they  will  have 
the  meeting  house  lathed  upon  the  studs,  and  so 
daubed  and  whitened  over  workmanlike." 

That  first  house  occupied  less  ground  than  the 


FIRST  CHURCH,  DEDHAM,  MASSACHUSETTS 
Whose  vestry  is  larger  than  the  original  meeting  house  of  this  society 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  159 

vestry  of  the  present  one,  and  yet  it  was  not  in 
order  until  1658. 

The  extreme  liberality  of  church  rule  in  the 
community  is  worthy  of  record.  Dedham  and 
New  Haven  shine  in  their  respective  ways  by 
contrast.  The  former  church  declared  itself  "no 
way  intending  hereby  to  bind  the  conscience  of 
any  to  walk  by  this  pattern,  or  to  approve  of  the 
practice  of  this  church  further  than  it  may  appear 
to  be  according  to  the  rule  of  the  Gospel."  The 
sentiment  of  brotherly  love  rather  than  of  ecclesias- 
tical admonition  seems  to  have  dominated  the 
community.  In  the  beginning  people  assembled 
at  each  others  houses  every  fifth  day  for  the  pur- 
pose of  becoming  familiar  with  the  "spiritual 
temper  and  gifts"  of  each  other,  and  they  met 
"lovingly  to  discourse  and  consult  together" 
upon  civil   and   ecclesiastical   questions. 

Mr.  John  Allin,  R.  Wheelock,  John  Luson, 
John  Frayry,  Eleazer  Lusher,  Robert  Hinsdale, 
and  ultimately  Edward  AUeyn  and  Anthony 
Fisher  were  selected  to  organise  the  church;  but 
alas!  this  relatively  easy-going  company  had 
hard  work  to  choose  within  itself.  Anthony 
Fisher  was  rejected;  another  was  "too  much 
addicted  to  the  world";    of  a  third  it  is  written, 


i6o  Old  New  England  Churches 

"  'the  Lord  left  him  without  any  provocation 
thereto,  to  such  a  distempered  flying  out  upon  one 
of  the  company'  who  had  been  deputed  to  'follow 
home  some  things  close  upon  him,'  that,  remaining 
' stiff e'  he  was  'given  over.'  "  At  last  when  all 
was  in  order,  letters  were  despatched  to  the  elders 
and  brethren  in  Boston,  Roxbury,  and  other 
churches,  entreating  their  presence  on  the  "  eighth 
day  of  the  ninth  month,"  and  the  hope  was  im- 
plied that  neither  the  "season  of  the  year  nor 
the  rawness  of  the  new  plantation"  would  compel 
them  to  decline  the  invitation.  The  result  of 
this  was  a  goodly  gathering,  at  which  the  hand 
of  fellowship  was  extended  by  the  visiting  elders, 
and  the  First  Church  in  Dedham  became  a  fact. 
Either  the  good  people  of  Dedham  exercised 
too  much  particularity  and  fastidiousness  in  the 
selection  of  those  who  should  represent  them  in 
the  church,  or  else  there  was  a  deal  of  worldliness 
as  well  as  brotherly  love  existent  in  that  infant 
civilisation,  for  first  one  disqualification  and  then 
another  ruled  out  their  choices  and  they  were  for 
a  long  time  without  church  officials.  At  last, 
when  a  ruling  elder  became  absolutely  essential 
to  the  spiritual  progress  of  Dedham,  the  con- 
gregation's choice  was  narrowed  down  to  two — 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  i6i 

Hunting  and  Wheelock.  Again  Roxbury  and 
Dorchester  were  called  in  and  Hunting  became 
their  choice.  Wheelock  withdrew  with  the  philo- 
sophical remark  that  he  "  marvelled  he  was  ever 
thought  of  for  the  office."  Thus  the  ancestor 
of  the  founder  and  first  president  of  Dartmouth 
College  lost  his  opportunity  and  Dedham  was 
unaware  of  its  own.  Immediately  after  Mr. 
AUin's  ordination  and  the  selection  of  church 
officers,  the  business  of  saving  the  souls  of  the 
little  community  began,  and  on  the  following 
Sunday  a  general  baptism  of  children  took  place. 
A  social,  chatty,  gossipy  interchange  of  views, 
notions,  and  plans  and  a  general  brotherly  agree- 
ment to  disagree  seems  to  have  been  the  comer 
stone  of  Dedham  beginnings.  The  early  history 
of  the  church  recounts  no  quarrels  worthy  of 
record;  no  extraordinary  happenings  of  any  sort. 
So  far  as  history  furnishes  us  with  details  we 
must  infer  that  the  settlers  attended  strictly  to 
their  business  and  took  no  part  in  those 
religious  controversies  of  the  time  which  more 
or  less  excited  the  other  colonists.  They  con- 
cerned themselves  with  establishing  a  burial 
place,  with  fencing  and  smoothing  and  clear- 
ing   and    with    all    the    details    that    were    to 


i62  Old  New  England  Churches 

mean  home  and  fireside  and  happiness.  There 
was  an  order  of  the  General  Court  which  required 
the  Selectmen  "  to  see  that  the  catechising  of  the 
children  was  not  neglected,"  and  we  read  of  even 
more  vulgar  cares — "some  persons  are  incon- 
siderate enough  to  tie  their  horses  to  the  ladder 
of  the  meeting  house,  thus  causing  it  to  be  dis- 
placed, or  'plucked'  to  'pieces,'  and  obstructing 
the  passages  to  and  from  the  door." 

As  far  as  one  can  infer  from  the  records,  the 
most  exciting  question  for  a  time  was  how  to 
seat  the  congregation.  The  town  was  constantly 
voting  on  this  subject,  and  the  matter  seems 
to  have  received  the  most  prayerful  consideration. 
Dedham  certainly  lacked  discretion  in  that  she 
seated  the  boys  all  together. 

It  was  John  AUin,  first  pastor  of  Dedham 
church,  equable  in  disposition  and  disinclined 
to  controversy,  who  was  chosen  to  present  the 
sentiments  of  the  elders  when  in  1646  it  became 
necessary  to  defend  the  rights  of  the  colonists 
against  a  British  Parliament.  This  he  did  with 
all  the  vigour  of  a  more  belligerent  man.  Theo- 
logical differences  forced  him  at  last  into  the 
field  of  controversy,  and  with  the  help  of  the 
Rev.   Thomas   Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  he  wrote 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  163 

the  "defence  of  the  nine  positions  or  ques- 
tions." 

In  167 1  the  first  pastor  died;  three  days  later 
his  wife  died  also,  and  they  were  buried  in  the 
same  grave. 

By  this  time  the  little  meeting  house  "12  feet 
in  the  stud"  in  which  "a  new  gallery"  had  al- 
ready been  set  up — though  one  cannot  imagine 
how — this  little  box  of  religious  teaching  was 
practically  a  ruin,  and  the  inhabitants  voted 
before  another  year  to  build  a  new  house.  The 
voting  was  carried  on  in  a  primitive  way.  White 
and  red  com  was  used;  the  white  standing  for  the 
"  ayes"  and  the  red  for  the  "noes.  "  The  second 
house  is  said  by  the  Rev.  William  Adams  to  have 
been  raised  on  the  17th  of  June,  1673.  I^  prob- 
ably stood  on  the  same  site  as  the  first  house,  but 
Dedham  folk  are  less  prodigal  of  their  recorded 
history  than  are  they  of  many  other  settlements, 
and  the  date  is  only  traditional.  It  seems  to  have 
been  determined,  however,  that  the  house  should 
embody  "three  pair  of  stairs  at  three  respective 
comers,"  north,  east,  and  south.  Men,  women, 
and  "lads"  were  to  be  oppositely  seated,  the  "  lads" 
being  classified  with  the  women. 

It  is  not  at  all  certain  when  this  building  was 


164  Old  New  England  Churches 

first  occupied  nor  under  what  conditions,  but  in 
the  spring  of  1674  it  was  agreed: 

"With  Widow  EUis  and  Widow  Dunkley  to 
procure  the  bell  to  be  sufficiently  leened  on  the 
Lord's  day  and  in  season,  to  keep  the  meeting 
house  clean,  and  to  take  care  of  the  doors  and 
windows  that  damage  come  not  into  the  glass." 

Even  by  1674  dilatory  Dedham  had  not  finished 
its  house.  After  it  had  been  occupied  for  eighteen 
months  the  selectmen  sent  for  the  carpenters  to 
come  and  complete  their  job.  Among  the  several 
thou-shalt-nots  of  the  town  we  learn  that  when 
a  horse  was  tied  to  the  meeting  house  ladder  its 
master  was  fined  sixpence,  and  that  fine  was  paid 
to  Robert  Onion.  These  trivial  items  of  town 
history  are  stated  in  fuller  detail  than  are  import- 
ant facts.  Dedham  had  its  bell-ringer  and  its 
dog-whipper,  and  the  business  of  the  latter  was 
to  "whip  dogs  out  of  the  meeting  house  and  to 
go  upon  errands  for  the  reverend  elders";  also 
to  take  care  of  the  "  cushion  and  glass,"  that  is,  of 
the  hour  glass. 

The  "lads"  and  the  complaining  congregation, 
which  was  now  officially  seated,  were  continual 
sources  of  anxiety  and  distraction  to  the  officers 
of  the  church.     The  "  lads  "  were  tried  in  different 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  165 

parts  of  the  house ;  sometimes  in  the  aisles,  some- 
times at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit  stairs,  but  always 
geographically  located  so  that  they  were  under 
the  espionage  of  the  good  folk  of  Dedham  town. 
In  Dedham  sanctuary  not  only  sex  but  age  was 
classified,  and  we  find  the  old  women,  and  young 
maids  separated — one  cannot  imagine  why.  The 
idea  of  accommodating  an  ever-increasing  people 
was  to  construct  and  re-construct  and  re-re- 
construct, galleries  and  galleries.  In  1700  the 
place  was  so  full  of  galleries  that  more  were  im- 
possible, but  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  was  pro- 
posed to  be  added  to  the  structure  on  the  west 
side.  Before  happy  Dedham  got  to  the  point 
of  carrying  out  this  plan,  another  com  vote  was 
taken  and  it  was  decided  to  "enlarge  below  and 
make  lights  above."  Up  to  this  time  the  church 
had  been  pewless,  but  presently  those  who  chose 
to  put  in  pews  at  their  own  expense  were  per- 
mitted to  do  so  "  on  the  sides  of  the  meeting  house 
below  that  were  without  seats."  Dedham  con- 
structed its  meeting  house  in  sections  so  that, 
like  Mr.  Wilfer's  suit  of  clothes,  before  it  was 
complete  the  first  parts  had  lost  their  useful- 
ness. The  town  seemed  prone  to  circumlocution 
in  other  than  architectural  ways,  and  it  did  not 


1 66  Old  New  England  Churches 

speak  of  "roof"  but  of  "outside  covering." 
The  church  bell  was  rung  by  some  one  standing 
in  the  body  seats  in  the  lower  part  of  the  house. 
The  village  was  not  gathered  about  the  meeting 
house  as  in  other  settlements.  The  house  stood 
almost  isolated  while  the  people  lived  apart  on 
their  farms,  notwithstanding  the  grant  of  lots 
near  at  hand. 

In  1 761  it  was  decided,  either  by  the  com  vote 
or  in  some  less  primitive  manner,  to  build  a  new 
house,  which  was  to  have  a  steeple  and  two 
porches.  In  time  it  acquired  a  third.  The  north 
sill  of  the  new  house  occupied  precisely  the  place 
of  the  old;  but  alas  for  Dedham,  its  new  meeting 
house  did  not  arrive  until  two  years  later,  and  no 
one  can  tell  when  it  was  first  occupied  for  re- 
ligious purposes.  Certain  it  is  that  the  new 
structure  had  a  velvet  cushion  in  its  pulpit  and 
a  curtain  for  its  window,  and  that  the  young 
ladies  who  furnished  these  things  were  given  thanks. 
Mr.  Dexter,  a  son  of  one  of  the  church's  pastors, 
donated  a  clock  and  his  mother  a  Bible.  The 
fifty  pews  on  the  first  floor  went  to  the  highest 
bidder  according  to  location,  but  the  bidding 
consisted  of  a  formal  rating,  he  who  paid  the 
highest  town  tax  having  the  first  choice,  and  so 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  167 

on.  These  pews  seem  to  have  been  held  in  per- 
petuity, passing  from  the  original  purchaser  to 
his  descendants  or  heirs  so  long  as  they  contrib- 
uted to  the  support  of  the  minister.  The  heavy 
taxpayers  of  those  days  appear  to  have  been 
Samuel  Deiter,  Dr.  John  Sprague  and  Dr.  Nathan- 
iel Ames  in  the  order  named;  but  the  town  was 
growing  rich  or  vain,  and  besides  the  original 
fifty,  there  was  a  demand  for  nineteen  more  pews. 

The  music  was  a  feature  of  great  importance, 
and  in  1785  it  was  voted  to  sing  "without  the 
deacon's  reading,"  but  five  years  later  Mr.  Abner 
Ellis  was  requested  to  make  use  of  some  instru- 
ment "to  strengthen  the  bass."  All  Dedham 
was  willing,  and  desired  this  change  but  they  did 
not  get  about  making  it  until  1803,  when  they 
purchased  a  bass-viol. 

Dedham,  in  common  with  other  congregations, 
had  hinged  seats  in  its  church  and  these  were  put 
up  when  the  congregation  arose  for  prayer. 
So  much  of  energy  was  employed  that  it  was 
necessary  to  make  a  protest.  A  gentleman  who 
was  present  at  this  proceeding  for  the  first  time 
in  some  other  church  is  said  to  have  become  panic- 
stricken,  and  leaped  into  the  aisle,  supposing  the 
gallery  was  falling.     Doubtless  this  contrivance 


1 68  Old  New  England  Churches 

helped  the  "  lads  "  not  a  little  to  endure  the  hours 
of  prayer  and  preaching.  It  would  give  them 
something  to  live  up  to  and  something  to  re- 
member afterward. 

During  the  occupancy  of  the  third  structure, 
many  were  unable  to  pay  the  rates  in  money,  and 
the  equivalent  in  other  things  was  taken.  There 
are  mentioned  in  the  records  two  bushels  of 
wheat  at  eight  shillings,  shoes  at  five  shillings,  a 
peck  of  samp  at  one  shilling,  a  quarter  of  beef 
of  the  church's  cow  at  seven  shillings,  a  fowl  at 
eightpence,  a  bushel  of  rye  at  four  shillings,  four 
and  a  half  bushels  of  turnips  at  four  shillings, 
mowing,  making,  and  carting  eight  loads  of  hay 
at  sixteen  shillings,  a  load  of  clay  at  three  shillings, 
a  bushel  of  Indian  com  at  three  shillings,  a  quar- 
ter of  veal  at  one  shilling,  weaving  cloth,  two 
shillings,  six  pounds  of  candles  at  three  shillings, 
weaving  forty  yards  of  cloth,  eighteen  shillings 
and  six  pence,  "  a  side  of  pork  to  our  pastor  "  four- 
teen shillings.  "Payed  by  Widow  Moe  in  scol- 
ing  for  our  pastor's  sone,  ten  shillings."  These 
items  give  an  idea  of  values  at  that  time,  and 
of  the  manner  in  which  people  adjusted  their 
debts. 

The  spirit  of  tolerance  and  geniality  was  epito- 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass,  169 

mised  in  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  F.  Havens. 
In  discussing  alterations  made  in  the  meeting 
house,  he  said: 

"The  change  embraced  many  separate  parts 
and  details.  It  would  be  strange  if  all  would  be 
equally  acceptable  to  all;  if  no  one  found  any- 
thing to  criticise  as  to  colour,  form,  size,  or  posi- 
tion; if  everyone  should  agree  that  the  pews  are 
all  right  and  the  pulpit  all  right;  that  every 
touch  of  the  brush,  every  part  of  the  trimming, 
every  panel  and  moulding,  every  part  of  light 
and  shade  exhibited  in  the  frescoe  was  just  what 
it  should  be  and  could  not  be  better;  it  would  be 
strange  if  all  should  so  agree.  It  would  be  what 
never  before  happened  since  the  world  began  in 
any  similar  case;  it  would  be  something  new 
under  the  sun.  Individuals  have  preferences; 
tastes  and  judgments  differ.  This  is  inevitable. 
For  myself,  I  am  not  disposed  to  criticise.  The 
committee  had  a  hard  task  to  perform,  and  they 
acted  conscientiously.  They  gave  their  time  and 
thought  to  the  subject  and  they  should  have  our 
thanks." 

This  gentle  speechment  concerning  things  mun- 
dane and  only  fairly  important  is  a  reflection  of 
the  community's  attitude  toward  things  doctrinal. 

There  was  considerably  more  of  the  sentiment 
"love  your  neighbour"  in  this  little  settlement 
than  was  to  be  found  elsewhere,  and  its  prosperity 
in   those    early    days    justified    the   mood.     The 


170  Old  New  England  Churches 

watchword  of  New  England  was  "survival  of 
the  fittest"  and  Dedham  was  not  behind  in  that 
amazing  hard  thriftiness.  In  1701  the  citizens 
gave  "notis  to  a  leame  gearle  whose  name  is 
Wodekins  (she  was  staying  at  Edward  Cook's 
house)  that  she  doe  depart  out  of  Dedham." 
How  antithetical  this  is  to  our  civilisation  that 
protects  and  fosters  the  merest  chance  of  life  in 
its  weaklings!  Perhaps  such  acts  in  those  days 
were  self-defensive,  but  in  the  light  of  a  more 
benevolent  time  they  seem  hard  indeed,  and  un- 
worthy of  those  whose  deeds  were  all  done  in  the 
name  of  God. 

Public  spirit  flourished.  The  citizens  donated 
liberally  to  Harvard  College,  and  they  also  voted 
twenty  pounds  a  year  to  be  paid  for  eleven  years, 
and  more  than  that  if  it  were  practicable  for  the 
town,  in  order  to  have  a  local  school  properly  con- 
ducted. Dedham  showed  more  altruism  in  lend- 
ing to  its  neighbours  in  times  of  battle,  crop- 
gathering,  etc.,  than  did  most  other  settlements. 

The  "wretched  boys"  were  so  great  an  element 
of  disturbance  in  all  churches  in  the  colonies  that 
they  were  disposed  of  with  difficulty.  The  Puri- 
tan felt  it  necessary  to  the  good  of  the  youngster's 
immortal  soul  that  he  should  be  caught  young  and 


First  Church,  Dedham,  Mass.  171 

thrust  as  far  into  heaven  as  was  possible  to  human 
and  Puritan  endeavour.  It  was  in  Dedham  that 
John  Pike  was  paid  sixteen  shillings  a  year  in 
1723  for  "keeping  the  boys  in  subjection  six 
months,"  but  when  John's  second  period  of  serv- 
ing came  around  he  demanded  that  his  wages  be 
doubled,  and  unwillingly  the  sum  was  voted. 
Two  centuries  later,  we  would  rather  have  doubled 
salaries  than  have  those  dead  and  gone  boys  sup- 
pressed— they  were  the  antidote  to  the  Puritan 
fathers ! 


CHURCH  OF  THE  PILGRIMAGE, 
PLYMOUTH,   MASS. 


I 


Copyright.  1906,  by  A.  S.  Bifbank 
CHURCH  OF  THE  PILGRIMAGE,  PLYMOUTH,  MASSACHUSETTS 
In  whose  first  house  Miles  Standish  worshipped  and  which  he  garrisoned,  and  where  Roger  Williams  Dreached 


CHAPTER  X 

Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts 

THE  sermon  preached  in  Plymouth  on  Decem- 
ber 2 1 , 1 62 1 ,  by  ruling  elder  William  Brewster 
was  in  all  probability  the  first  printed  sermon 
among  those  delivered  in  New  England.  Elder 
Brewster's  name  was  not  placed  upon  it  but  there 
is  much  internal  evidence  to  establish  it  as  his, 
although  there  is  a  bare  possibility  that  it  was 
delivered  by  Robert  Cushman.  The  subject  was 
eminently  fitted  to  the  conditions:  "  Let  no  man 
seek  his  own  wealth:  but  every  man  another's 
wealth."  These  friends  on  an  alien  soil  had  much 
need  of  brotherly  love ;  and  the  Plymouth  church 
had  its  beginning  on  a  broad  and  loving  platform. 
This  particular  sermon  was  the  first  Thanks- 
giving of  the  Pilgrims  in  this  country,  and 
it  was  celebrated  because  of  "our  harvest  being 
gotten  in."  Then  came  the  dreary  winter  and 
the  uncertain  spring,  followed  by  a  severe  drought, 
and  in  July,  1623,  the  first  fast  day  was  observed 

and  prayers  for  rain  were  offered. 

175 


176  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  supplications  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers  were 
remarkably  personal  and  specific,  such  as  this 
one  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Miles: 

"O  Lord,  thou  knowest  we  do  not  want  thee 
to  send  us  a  rain  which  shall  pour  down  in  fury 
and  swell  our  streams  and  carry  away  our  haycocks, 
fences,  and  bridges;  but,  Lord,  we  want  it  to  come 
drizzle-drozzle,  drizzle-drozzle  for  about  a  week. 
Amen." 

We  more  readily  make  acquaintance  with  the 
settlers  by  reading  the  diary  of  Elder  Bradford 
who  marched  with  Miles  Standish  to  reconnoitre 
and  explore  the  New  World  about  Plymouth. 
He  tells  of  the  forest  tangle  which  "  tore  our  very 
armour  in  pieces,"  and  gives  an  intimate  glimpse 
of  these  fine  adventurers: 

"We  brought  neither  beer  nor  water  with  us, 
and  our  victuals  was  only  biscuit  and  Holland 
cheese  and  a  little  bottle  of  aqua  vitae.  .  .  . 
We  were  heartily  fraught  and  sat  us  down  to 
drink  our  first  New  England  water  with  as  much 
delight  as  we  ever  drank  in  our  lives." 

On  that  expedition  William  Bradford  was  caught 
by  the  leg  in  a  deer  trap  set  by  the  Indians,  "a 
very  pretty  device  made  with  a  rope  of  their  own 
making."  Miles  Standish,  that  gorgeously  fine 
figure  in  history,  sat  in  the  first  meeting  house 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.  177 

and  doubtless  helped  in  its  development;  though 
certain  it  is  he  was  more  useful  on  the  outside  of 
it  than  in,  his  spirit  being  more  military  than 
spiritual.  He  always  had  his  "awkward  squad" 
in  fighting  order  on  Sunday.     His  men — 

"  assembled  at  his  door  and  from  his  door  each 
man  with  his  musket  and  Captain  Standish  with 
his  side  arms  and  cane  in  his  right  hand  walked  to 
church  three  abreast  while  the  captain  took  his 
place  at  the  preacher's  left." 

When  the  military  spirit  is  en  evidence  colonial 
history  becomes  inspiring:  so  brave  a  showing  is 
made  with  so  little! 

The  first  Thanksgiving  in  New  England  was 
mightily  celebrated  in  Plymouth,  for  did  not  Mr. 
Standish  provide  a  display  awe-inspiring  to  the 
Indians  as  well  as  amusing  to  the  settlers  ?  Three 
days  were  given  up  to  the  programme,  the  English 
exploiting  themselves  for  the  entertainment  of 
their  Indian  guests,  who  in  turn  caused  "much 
merriment  with  native  games  and  sports,  and  the 
exhibition  of  mother  wit  and  drollery." 

Early  in  church  history  came  Lyf  ord  and  Rogers, 
persomB  non  gratcB  by  reason  of  their  lack  of  char- 
acter; and  it  was  not  until  after  1628  that  the 
church  found  relief  by  calling  the  Rev.   Ralph 


178  Old  New  England  Churches 

Smith  to  its  pulpit.  Then  came  Roger  Williams, 
broad  and  generous  minded,  who  could  not  have 
found  himself  too  distressfully  "  cabined,  cribbed, 
confined"  by  the  demands  of  the  Church  of  the 
Pilgrimage,  because  Plymouth  stood  as  an  ex- 
ample to  the  other  colonies,  of  generosity  rather 
than  of  severity  in  its  application  of  theological 
doctrine.  The  Plymouth  church  was  a  sort  of 
leaven  for  the  heavy  doctrines  prescribed  else- 
where. It  was  misfortune,  in  the  guise  of  disease 
and  death,  which  brought  about  the  fixing  of 
parishes  on  a  broader  basis  than  they  would 
otherwise  have  had.  Hard  times  caused  con- 
siderable interchange  of  sympathy  among  the 
people,  and  it  happened  that  while  Endicott  was 
establishing  the  Puritans  in  Salem,  the  almost 
universal  illness  in  that  settlement  compelled 
him  to  call  upon  the  services  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Fuller,  a  deacon  in  the  Separatist  church  in 
Plymouth.  The  demands  of  hospitality  doubtless 
compelled  Endicott  to  forego  any  expression 
of  those  extreme  views  which  were  Salem's,  and 
enabled  the  Doctor  to  speak  more  of  his  own 
principles  which  were  Plymouth's.  Thus  the 
Governor  found  his  prejudices  giving  way  as  such 
are  likely  to  do  in  the  presence  of  kindly  and 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.   179 

tolerant  feeling.  A  letter  of  Endicott's,  written 
about  this  time,  is  evidence  that  men  of  one  fair 
purpose  may  not  regard  dissimilarity  in  forms 
with  any  great  regret. 

The  disease  which  prevailed  at  that  time  was 
to  be  pathologically  expected,  but  there  is  an 
inclination  to  resent  so  much  misfortune  when 
the  purpose  of  these  people  was  all  for  good,  as 
they  understood  it.  On  the  top  of  the  risks  and 
agonies  of  colonisation  came  the  effort  of  Bishop 
Laud  and  the  rest  of  the  Established  Church  to 
deprive  the  colony  of  the  rights  that  had  been 
granted  it,  an  attempt  to  interrupt  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  government  and  to  impose  a  new 
condition  upon  the  colonies.  The  menace  passed, 
however,  and  in  1636  we  find  the  Church  of  the 
Pilgrimage  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  John  Rey- 
ner;  later  on  the  Rev.  Charles  Chauncey  came 
as  his  assistant. 

In  1637  the  "Plymouth  meeting  house"  ac- 
quired "  somewhat "  by  inheritance  from  one 
of  the  colonists,  and  it  was  probably  about  this 
time  that  the  first  church  building  of  the  Pilgrims 
was  erected.  An  old  deed  refers  to  the  north 
side  of  the  Town  Square  as  "the  spot  where  the 
old  meeting  house  stood."     After  the  death,  in 


i8o  Old  New  England  Churches 

1644,  of  William  Brewster,  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
the  Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  affairs  were  at  such 
an  ebb  in  the  settlement  that  the  question  of 
abandoning  it  utterly  became  a  serious  one. 
The  project  was  never  fully  executed,  but  there 
were  a  good  many  whose  discouragement  was  so 
great  that  they  dared  anew  and  went  elsewhere. 
As  Plymouth  records  have  it,  "  Thus  was  this  pres- 
ent church  left  like  an  ancient  mother  grown 
old  and  forsaken  by  her  children";  which 
phraseology  suggests  a  pathetic  sentimentality  on 
the  part  of  the  Puritan  fathers,  not  unlike  that 
which  has  induced  a  latter-day  writer  to  refer  to 
the  "old  families  of  Chicago." 

After  1654  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrimage  was 
left  pastorless  for  fifteen  years,  and  this  must  be 
attributed  to  a  too  great  economy  on  the  part  of 
the  townspeople  who  refused  to  pay  a  minister 
of  education  and  ability.  Under  the  pastoral 
control  of  John  Cotton,  son  of  the  celebrated 
Cotton  of  Boston,  the  church's  fortunes  were 
greatly  imperilled,  there  being  only  forty-seven 
resident  members.  But  Plymouth  had  the 
glory  of  "  advancing  the  Gospel  of  the  King- 
dom of  Christ"  since  she  gained  a  large  body  of 
recruits  known  as  "praying  Indians"  and  estab- 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.   i8i 

lished  several  churches  among  them.  Mr.  Cotton, 
as  well  as  Eliot  the  great  apostle,  preached  to  the 
Indians  in  their  own  tongue.  After  a  season  of 
adversity  a  new  meeting  house  was  put  up,  and 
meantime  many  churches  had  been  raised  and 
had  prospered  as  offshoots  of  the  Plymouth 
settlement.  After  Cotton  left  the  pulpit,  the 
Rev.  Ephraim  Little  came  to  it  and  he  was  the 
first  minister  buried  in  the  Plymouth  burying 
ground.  A  period  was  marked  in  the  history  of 
Plymouth  as  well  as  in  all  colonial  ecclesiastical 
history,  by  the  coming  of  Whitefield  and  the 
"Great  Awakening."  Such  a  preacher,  even  one 
with  less  of  Whitefield' s  magnetism  and  extra- 
ordinary power  of  persuasion,  would  have  found 
favour  with  a  generous  congregation  such  as 
Plymouth's.  He  created  much  dissension  and 
resistance  in  other  places,  but  was  hospitably 
welcomed  at  Plymouth,  where  he  preached  twice. 
This  church  split  on  doctrinal  grounds  and  a 
third  congregation  was  organised  which  built  a 
church  for  itself;  but  "the  society  was  never 
large  though  comprising  much  of  the  wealth 
and  fashion  of  the  town."  When,  in  1776,  it 
was  dissolved,  we  may  assume  that  the  perils  of 
the  wonderful  year  again  brought  the  congrega- 


1 82  Old  New  England  Churches 

tion  together  on  the  ground  of  the  common  good 
and  that  the  factions  joined  in  building  a  new- 
meeting  house. 

Liberal  though  it  had  been,  Plymouth  desired 
to  be  yet  more  so,  and  in  1800  we  find  the  Rev. 
James  Kendall  established  in  the  pulpit  and 
running  things  on  a  basis  broad  enough  to  offend 
a  good  many  people  and  induce  them  to  break  up 
again.  On  the  first  of  October,  1801,  half  the 
congregation  withdrew  and  reorganised  on  an 
independent  plan. 

The  first  Sabbath  school  was  started  in  18 18 
with  Ezra  Collier  as  superintendent.  The  name, 
"  Church  of  the  Pilgrimage, "  was  not  bestow^ed 
until  a  new  house  was  built  in  1840,  almost  upon 
the  site  of  the  first  church.  Very  near  it  is  Burial 
Hill  where  some  of  the  Pilgrims  rest,  but  we  have 
an  account  of  a  fearful  flood  soon  after  the  time 
of  settlement  which  swept  through  the  town,  laid 
bare  the  dead  bodies  of  those  who  had  died  by 
disease,  and  carried  them  out  to  sea. 

In  Plymouth  we  must  assume  that  rum  was  in 
demand  for  the  Pilgrims  as  it  was  for  the  Puritans 
elsewhere,  because  it  was  a  matter  worthy  of  imi- 
versal  comment  that  as  late  as  183 1 ,  a  meeting  house 
was  put  up  without  its  assistance.     It  is  recorded 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.  183 

that  "the  workmen  refrained  entirely  from  the 
use  of  ardent  spirits."  One  author  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  those  who  went  to  sea  began  to 
"reform  in  the  matter  of  intemperance  earlier 
than  did  those  who  staid  on  land  and  built  meet- 
ing houses."  We  must  conclude  that  it  was  not 
incompatible  with  a  good  landing  in  Heaven  to 
get  drunk,  but  a  good  landing  on  shore  was  very 
problematical  under  the  same  circumstances. 
Extreme  license  in  some  direction  was  necessary 
to  keep  those  fettered  people  from  going  mad. 

"  Ruhm  and  cacks "  were  voted  for  the  raising 
of  the  meeting  house  as  certainly  as  were  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence.  In  one  town  there  was  ap- 
propriated "10  gal.  of  rum  at  8  pounds  to  raise 
the  meeting  house,  and  3  pounds  went  to  the  local 
doctor  'for  setting  his  bone  Jonathan  Strong,  and 
3  pounds  10  shillings  for  setting  Ebenezer  Burt's 
thy.'  "  There  seems  to  be  a  relation  of  ideas  to 
figures  and  facts  in  this  statement. 

The  Sabbath  day  strictures  in  Plymouth  have 
been  elsewhere  noticed.  It  was  here  that  "a 
man  was  sharply  whipped  for  shooting  fowl  on 
Sunday;  another  was  fined  for  carrying  a  grist 
of  com  home  on  the  Lord's-day,  and  the  miller 
who  allowed  him  to  take  it  was  also  fined.     Eliza- 


184  Old  New  England  Churches 

beth  Eddy  of  the  same  town  was  fined  in  1652, 
I  OS  for  'wringing  and  hanging  out  clothes.'  " 
"  At  Plymouth  a  man  who  attended  his  tarpits  on 
the  Sabbath,  was  set  in  the  stocks.  James  Watt 
in  1658  was  publicly  reproved  'for  writing  a  note 
about  common  business  on  the  Lord's-day,  at 
least  in  the  evening  somewhat  too  soonF  A  Ply- 
mouth man  who  drove  a  yoke  of  oxen  was  'pre- 
sented' before  the  Court,  as  was  also  another 
offender  who  drove  his  cows  a  short  distance 
'without  need'  on  the  Sabbath."  Yet  Plymouth 
was  relatively  liberal  in  her  Sabbath  day  dis- 
cipline. It  was  in  Dunstable  that  a  soldier  was 
fined  forty  shillings  for  "wetting  a  piece  of  an 
old  hat  to  put  in  his  shoe."  Evidently  the  good 
folk  of  Dunstable  did  not  understand  that  soldiers 
and  chilblains  wait  for  no  Monday. 

There  are  a  good  many  sad  blots  upon  New 
England  colonial  history.  Its  witchcraft,  its 
cruel  punishments,  its  intolerance  of  all  views 
but  its  own,  worst  of  all  the  buying  and  selling 
of  human  beings — its  epoch  of  slavery!  New 
England  may  in  some  degree  have  atoned  for 
this  latter  shame  by  her  bitter  arraignment  of 
the  South  two  centuries  later,  and  her  demand 
that  even  at  the  cost  of  a  nation  of  lives  slavery 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.    185 

must  be  abolished.  New  England  had  so  many 
more  crimes  to  atone  for  than  had  her  southern 
brethren  that  we  can  partly  understand  if  not 
always  sympathise  with  her  zeal  and  supereroga- 
tion. 

We  get  a  peep  into  the  scholastic  situation  in 
Plymouth  when  we  read  that  in  1694  "the  town 
declared  themselves  to  be  against  warning  town 
meetings  by  papers  set  up  for  that  end  " — doubt- 
less meaning  papers  posted  on  the  church  door — ■ 
"  but  to  Expect  warning  from  Cunstables  by  word 
of  mouth  when  ever  there  shall  be  occasion." 
Now  all  "warnings"  were  habitually  posted — the 
most  convenient  method  of  advertisement,  unless 
the  majority  of  the  townspeople  were  unable  to 
read.  It  was  only  when  illiteracy  was  general 
that  it  became  necessary  to  cry  the  news  from 
the  housetops,  and  hence  Plymouth's  unique 
method  of  "by  word  of  mouth,"  leads  us  to 
infer 

The  bell  of  the  Plymouth  meeting  house  must 
have  existed  in  1679,  foi"  ^^  "that  date  the  con- 
stable was  "  ordered  by  the  Towne  to  take  course 
for  the  sweeping  of  the  meeting  house  and  the 
Ringing  of  the  bell  and  to  pay  an  Indian  for  the 
killing  of  a  Wulfe."     Plymouth  was  very  natur- 


1 86  Old  New  England  Churches 

ally  the  nucleus  of  many  outlying  parishes,  and 
in  1635  the  demand  was  made  by  several  families 
of  Bndgewater  for  "  a  way  "  from  Bridgewater  to 
the  Plymouth  meeting  house.  We  cannot  decide 
whether  their  zeal  was  prompted  by  spiritual 
demands  or  by  trade  convenience,  for  their  peti- 
tion was  rendered  thus: 

"  God,  by  His  providence,  hath  placed  the 
bounds  of  our  habitation  in  Bridgewater,  and  in 
the  eastward  side  of  the  town,  and  about  two 
miles  from  the  meeting  house  and  the  mill,  and 
some  of  us  have  had  no  way  into  the  town  but 
upon  suffrage  upon  other  men's  lands.  We  think 
it  very  hard  that  living  in  a  wilderness  we  can- 
not have  a  convenient  room  for  highway." 

In  the  matter  of  seating  its  congregation,  Ply- 
mouth doubtless  had  the  original  problem.  Negroes 
and  Indians  were  placed  together  in  the  meeting 
house  and  despite  the  fact  that  there  was  a  differ- 
ence of  a  good  many  sweat  glands  to  the  square 
inch  in  favour  of  the  Indian  he  could  make  no 
objection  since  he  too  was  a  slave,  having  been 
taken  in  war  and  sold  to  the  Pilgrim  fathers. 
However,  "the  owners  of  the  seat  before  where 
the  Indians  and  negroes  set,  at  the  meeting  house, 
Doe  give  3  pounds  toward  erecting  a  plase  for 
said  negroes  and  Indians  to  sett  in  elsewhere.'* 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Mass.  187 

This  seems  exceedingly  captious,  considering  the 
many  other  annoying  things  they  had  tolerated 
without  protest.  Since  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
had  its  origin  in  New  England  at  a  time  when  the 
Puritan  legislatures  desired  to  regulate  their  laws 
in  accordance  with  those  of  the  Mosaic  period  of 
history,  the  thoughtful  man  experiences  some 
confusion.  It  has  been  pointed  out  by  one  bril- 
liant author  that  "  their  fugitive  slave  law  should 
have  been  taken  from  the  23rd  chapter  of  Deuter- 
onomy." But  these  Pilgrims  were  men  of  ob- 
stinacy rather  than  of  mentality,  and  were  so 
harassed  by  their  superstitions  that  it  is  wonder- 
ful they  achieved  so  much  by  way  of  bringing 
order  out  of  chaos,  and  not  that  they  often  failed 
to  be  coherent  in  the  relation  of  their  deeds  to 
their  doctrines.  One  is  inclined  to  become  an 
unmitigated  optimist  after  reading  of  those  mar- 
vellous times,  for  he  can  hardly  again  doubt  that 
order  is  the  pre-ordained  end  of  all  things. 

In  accordance  with  the  New  England  colony 
law,  Plymouth  from  the  beginning  determined 
that  "solemn  compaction  or  conversing  with  the 
devill,  by  way  of  witchcraft,  conjuration,  or  the 
like"  should  be  held  "capitall  offences  lyable  to 
death."     Thus  despite  her  relative  liberality  we 


1 88  Old  New  England  Churches 

must  charge  her  with  the  cruelty  practised  elsewhere 
in  New  England — conscientious,  except  in  men  like 
Cotton  Mather  or  Nicholas  Noyes,  in  whom  cruelty 
became  conscious  without  conscientious  excuse. 

In  these  witchcraft  records  lie  perhaps  the 
most  extraordinary  examples  of  degenerate  im- 
pulse in  the  history  of  the  world.  Acts  of  persecu- 
tion were  the  direct  emotional  outlet  for  degenerates 
like  Cotton  Mather  and  other  preachers  who  had 
achieved  a  certain  limited  intellectual  development 
but  whose  trade  it  was  to  suppress  all  human  im- 
pulse. The  wholesale  slaughter  inaugurated  in  or- 
der that  men  like  Mather  might  be  able  to  in- 
dulge themselves,  under  the  cloak  of  religious 
zeal,  in  the  indecencies  and  vicious  propensities 
common  among  the  Puritans  of  that  time  would 
have  been  considered  by  many  the  prerogative 
solely  of  cloistered  monks;  and  the  facts  induce 
distressing  speculations.  The  revelation  of  much 
that  is  unprintable  for  general  reading  might,  if  it 
could  be  presented,  tend  to  soften  the  bitter 
judgment  that  this  generation  is  inclined  to 
mete  to  those  early  Puritans;  because  that  un- 
printable testimony  would  at  once  relegate  to  the 
hospital  many  of  those  men  who  seemed  zealous 
to  the  point  of  crime. 


FIRST  CHURCH,  DORCHESTER,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  XI 
First  Church,  Dorchester,  Massachusetts 

THESE  first  settlers  of  "ye  Town  of  Dor- 
chester took  up  every  one  his  spot  to 
set  down  upon,  pretty  thick  together  at  ye  north- 
erly end  of  ye  Town."  This  was  the  beginning. 
The  history  of  Dorchester  is  reckoned  from  the 
first  Sabbath,  the  sixth  of  June,  which  followed 
the  coming  of  the  colonists  to  this  spot.  A  week 
later,  early  in  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the 
booming  of  ordnance  heralded  the  arrival  of  the 
Arabella,  the  flag  ship  of  the  New  England 
fleet  bringing  Governor  Winthrop,  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor Dudley,  and  all  their  company  to  lay  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  They  arrived 
with  the  Royal  Charter.  The  sacrament  was 
administered  in  Dorchester  on  that  second  Sun- 
day amid  general  rejoicing.  This  act  of  com- 
munion was  possible  because  the  settlers  had  come 
from  England  a  regularly  organised  church  with 
pastor  and  officers,  the  only  instance  of  the  kind 
in  America. 

Dorchester  town  was   not   incorporated   until 

191 


192  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  following  September,  and  it  was  so  christened 
partly  because  many  of  the  settlers  came  from 
a  town  of  the  same  name  in  England  and  partly 
because  Mr.  White,  a  former  minister,  had  been 
lovingly  known  as  "  The  Patriarch  of  Dorchester." 
His  activity  in  the  new  Dorchester's  early  civic 
affairs  earned  for  him  still  another  title  of  affection 
and  dignity,  "The  Father  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony." 

Let  the  imagination  carry  us  back  to  the  time 
when  the  little  fort  was  built  on  Rock  Hill.  Men 
kept  watch  at  night  to  guard  their  homes,  and  when 
that  first  low- thatched  church  was  raised  "the 
builders  every  one  had  his  sword  by  his  side,  and 
so  builded!"  The  catch-phrase  used  by  the  men 
of  Dorchester  was  taken  from  the  Book,  "  In  the 
time  of  trouble  God  shall  shelter  me  in  His  pavil- 
ion, in  the  secret  of  His  tabernacle  shall  He  hide 
me."  Surrounding  the  church,  the  sign  of  their 
single  purpose  in  life,  those  fought  for  existence 
who  had  been  "  persons  of  good  rank  and  circum- 
stances in  their  native  country,  and  had  been 
brought  up  in  a  delicate  manner,"  and  we  are  told 
that  "  of  those  that  were  compelled  to  live  in  tents, 
and  lie  upon  or  too  near  the  cold  moist  earth 
before   they  could   be   provided  with  more  con- 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  193 

venient  dwellings,  several  were  seized  with  the 
scurvy  from  which  they  died." 

The  history  of  no  parish  is  so  touchingly  told 
as  Dorchester's  by  its  own  people.  No  modem 
words  could  present  so  vivid  a  picture,  so  certain 
a  reflection  of  conditions  as  do  the  simple  utter- 
ances of  the  dead  and  half-forgotten  members 
of  that  little  pioneer  community.  Therefore, 
for  the  most  part,  Dorchester  shall  speak  for  itself 
after  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years.  The 
church  was  replanted  in  America  probably  in 
1630,  having  had  its  beginning  in  England  in 
March  of  the  same  year,  but  we  do  not  read  of 
the  existence  of  the  meeting  house  "for  ye  public 
worship  of  God"  until  1633,  and  even  then  its 
historian  adds:  "we  having  no  Account  when  it 
was  built." 

That  the  intervening  years  were  full  of  deso- 
lation cannot  be  doubted.  It  was  in  1631  that 
Captain  Clapp  expressed  the  universal  distress: 

"  O  ye  hunger  that  many  suffered,  and  saw  no 
hope  in  an  Eye  of  Reason  to  be  supplied,  only  by 
Clams  and  Muscles  and  Fish;  and  Bread  was  so 
Scarce,  that  sometimes  ye  very  Crusts  from  my 
Father's  table  would  have  been  very  sweet  unto 
me ;  and  when  I  could  have  Meal  &  Water  &  Salt 
boiled  together,  it  was  so  good,  who  could  wish  it 
better." 

With  a  commendable  desire  to  show  a  more  hopeful 


194  Old  New  England  Churches 

side  of  the  picture  he  adds  "  later  there  was  Roast 
Goatr 

Of  the  time  when  the  church  was  established, 
Blake  records,  "This  year  ye  Plantation  Granted 
Mr.  Israel  Stoughton  liberty  to  build  a  Mill  upon 
Neponsit  River  which  I  suppose  was  ye  first  Mill 
built  in  this  Colony,  and  ye  Sd  River  has  been 
famous  for  Mills  ever  since."  There  is  no  positive 
evidence  that  the  Dorchester  church  was  furnished 
with  deacons  but  there  is  a  tentative  record  that 
John  Moore,  John  Gaylord,  and  William  Rock- 
well were  accorded  the  title  though  it  was  not 
officially  given.  The  whole  story  of  the  First  Church 
of  Dorchester  is  more  or  less  inchoate.  It  refused 
the  innovation  of  an  organ  until  1 841.  In  Judge 
Sewall's  diary  we  find  entries  that  make  the  cold 
on  those  desolate  Sabbath  days  seem  to  have  been 
more  intense  in  Dorchester  than  elsewhere.  "  The 
communion  bread  was  frozen  pretty  hard."  he 
writes,  "and  rattled  sadly  in  the  plates,"  and  he 
comments  further  on  the  "extraordinary  winter 
and  snow.  Bread  frozen  at  the  Lord's  table  and 
yet  it  was  very  comfortable  at  the  meeting." 
He  tells  of  a  new-bom  babe  who  was  brought  into 
this  frightful  atmosphere  to  be  baptised.  The 
cheerfulness  and   patience  conveyed   in  the   rec- 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  195 

ords  left  by  these  Dorchester  chroniclers  touch 
the  heart  and  give  deeper  meaning  to  their  con- 
dition. Stoves  were  unknown  there  until  nearly- 
one  hundred  years  after  the  First  Church  was 
founded,  and  then  they  won  their  way  only  after 
much  travail  on  the  part  of  the  advanced  minds 
of  the  parish  aided  by  the  New  Englander's  appre- 
ciation of  a  joke.  In  his  history  of  the  Second 
Church,   Captain  John  Codman  relates: 

"At  last  the  stove  party  was  victorious.  Old 
'Uncle  Ned  Foster'  was  foremost  in  the  opposi- 
tion. He  threatened  to  sign  over  but  finally  he 
concluded  to  remain  loyal  and  sit  it  out.  So  on 
the  first  Sunda}^  after  the  stoves  had  been  intro- 
duced the  old  gentleman  occupied  his  pew  as  usual, 
the  stove  pipe  being  directly  over  him.  There 
he  sat  with  no  very  saintlike  expression  during 
the  sermon,  a  red  bandanna  spread  over  his  head 
and  his  face  corresponding  to  it.  A  general 
smile  spread  over  the  house,  the  minister  himself 
catching  the  infection,  for  almost  everybody  ex- 
cept 'Uncle  Ned'  was  aware  that  the  day  being 
rather  warm  no  fire  had  been  lighted." 

One  is  tempted  to  wander  from  one  adminis- 
tration to  another  and  recount  only  the  illustrative 
anecdotes  of  Dorchester's  first  church.  We  have 
everywhere  intimate  glimpses  into  church  doings. 
"Uncle  Daniel  Davenport,"  the  sexton,  regu- 
lated the  matter  of  foot-warmers.     He  and  his 


196  Old  New  England  Churches 

son  preceded  the  congregation  on  Sunday  mornings 
laden  with  foot-warmers  which  they  distributed 
among  those  who  had  paid  for  them. 

The  first  meeting  house  was  raised  in  1631,  near 
the  comer  of  Pleasant  and  East  Cottage  streets 
on  Allin's  Plain.  It  was  about  "12  feet  in  the 
stud,"  built  of  logs  and  thatch,  within  a  stockade, 
and  it  became  at  once  the  arsenal  of  the  town. 
Cannon  were  fixed  upon  the  roof  and  sentinels 
kept  guard.  The  town  week  began  on  the  second 
day  of  the  seven,  the  church  week  on  the  first, 
and  the  same  building  served  for  religious  meet- 
ings and  for  the  transaction  of  town  business.  The 
church  was  the  safe-deposit  for  the  whole  village, 
and  we  may  picture  family  processions  each  evening 
wending  toward  it  bearing  articles  of  value  to  be 
kept  within  for  safety.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Maverick, 
the  beloved  first  preacher,  nearly  put  an  end  to 
the  usefulness  of  this  first  structure.  While 
drying  powder  in  the  church  he  blew  up  a  whole 
keg,  burned  the  thatch  on  the  roof,  singed  his 
own  clothes,  and  created  a  universal  diversion 
in  Dorchester. 

During  the  first  year  of  this  church,  the  people 
of  Roxbury  joined  Dorchester  in  worship,  since 
at  that  time  they  had  no  chiurch  of   their  own. 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  197 

After  a  while  local  enterprise  undertook  "to 
build  stairs  on  the  outside  and  the  loft  to  be  laid 
and  a  window  in  the  loft."  Four  years  after  its 
founding,  new-comers  to  Dorchester  had  over- 
crowded the  town  so  much  that  nearly  half  the 
congregation  agreed  to  move  elsewhere  in  order 
to  give  place  to  the  new  arrivals;  and  part  of  the 
church  withdrew  to  Windsor,  Connecticut.  A 
beautiful  hospitality  this — that  people  should 
cheerfully  abandon  their  homes  to  give  place  to 
the  newcomer,  presumably  not  yet  inured  to 
hardship.  Mr.  Maverick's  death  made  way  for 
Richard  Mather,  the  third  minister  of  this  church, 
reckoning  the  Rev.  John  White,  promoter  of  the 
colony,  as  the  first.  We  find  on  the  church 
records  of  Dorchester  apropos  of  Mather,  the 
following : 

"  Third  in  New  England  Dorchester 
Was  this  ordained  minister, 

Second  to  none  in  fruitfulness,  habits  and  cheerfulness, 
Divine  his  charms,  his  years  seven  times  seven, 
Guiding  men's  souls  from  earth  to  heaven, 
Prophet's  reward  he  can  know  above, 
But  great's  our  loss  by  his  remove " 

This  is  not  poetic  but  it  bears  the  hall-mark  of 
sincerity. 

At  the  time  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Burr  was  called 
to  assist  Mr.  Mather  there  were  several  points  of 


198  Old  New  England  Churches 

difference  between  them,  and  a  convention  to 
adjust  these  was  called  nine  years  after  the  organi- 
sation of  the  church.  After  four  days'  discussion 
the  meeting  decided  that  "both  sides  had  cause 
to  be  humbled  for  their  failings  for  which  they 
were  advised  to  set  a  day  apart  for  reconciliation. ' ' 
Was  this  reconciliation  perfunctory  and  official 
or  did  it  really  mean  renewed  spiritual  and  brother- 
ly alliance? 

Dorchester  for  a  long  time  was  content  with 
its  first  meeting  house.  It  worshipped  within 
the  stockade — sentinelled,  patrolled,  cannon- 
guarded;  but  in  time  there  came  a  demand  that 
*'  for  peace  and  love's  sake  there  shall  be  a  new 
meeting  house." 

The  second  house  was  built  very  near  to  the 
first,  but  about  twenty-five  years  later  it  was 
moved  to  Meeting  House  Hill.  Dr.  Robert  Thax- 
ter's  house  helps  to  identify  the  site.  Consider- 
able diplomacy  had  been  exercised  in  Dorchester 
before  this  removal,  because  three  citizens,  bent 
upon  improvement,  agreed  together  that  a 
new  gallery  should  be  put  into  the  church. 
Having  some  doubt  of  the  result  of  a  vote  these 
three  cannily  approached  the  selectmen,  sep- 
arately  and   individually,    to   obtain   their    con- 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  199 

sent.  They  doubtless  urged  the  affair  on  per- 
sonal grounds;  and  presently,  without  any  offi- 
cial action  having  been  taken,  the  gallery  was  put 
up.  This  caused  a  division  of  feeling  in  the  town, 
and  when  the  matter  was  investigated  the  select- 
men treacherously  declared  they  had  never  sanc- 
tioned the  addition,  and  that  they  even  objected 
to  it  because  it  excluded  the  light.  We  shall  never 
know  whether  the  Selectmen  had  just  awakened 
to  the  situation  and  resented  the  fact  that  they 
had  been  cozened,  or  whether  with  latter-day 
acumen,  they  had  decided  beforehand  that  this 
would  be  their  course  in  case  their  sin  should 
find  them  out.  Though  a  meeting  was  called  to 
settle  the  affair,  the  gallery  was  allowed  to 
stand — being  already  built — but  alas,  it  was  not  to 
stand  for  those  who  had  lobbied  for  it.  The  three 
exclusive  gentlemen  were  asked  to  acknowledge 
their  f rowardness,  which  they  did  in  these  terms : 

"  We  whose  names  are  underwritten  do  acknow- 
ledge that  it  was  our  weakness  that  we  were  so 
inconsiderate  as  to  make  a  small  seat  in  the  meet- 
ing house  without  more  clear  and  full  approba- 
tion of  the  town  and  selectmen  thereof." 

Some  excuses  followed  and  the  document  pro- 
ceeded : 


200  Old  New  England  Churches 

"Therefore  we  desire  that  our  failing  therein 
shall  be  passed  by;  and  if  the  town  will  grant 
our  seats  that  we  have  been  at  so  rauch  cost  in 
setting  up,  we  thankfully  acknowledge  your  love 
to  us  therein,  and  we  do  hereupon  further  engage 
ourselves  that  we  will  not  give  up  or  sell  any  of 
our  places  in  that  seat  to  any  person  or  persons 
but  who  the  elders  shall  approve  of,  or  such  as 
shall  have  power  to  place  men  in  seats  in  the 
assembly." 

This  sadly  humiliating  document  was  signed  by 
Increase  Atherton,  Samuel  Procter,  and  Thomas 
Bird. 

We  read  in  the  "annals"  that 

"This  year  [1638]  arrived  here  on  August  i6th 
the  Revd.  Richard  Mather,  that  was  a  long  time 
after  Pastor  of  this  Church,  and  with  him  a  great 
Number  of  Godly  people  that  Settled  here  with 
him.  There  came  with  him  100  pasengeers  & 
23  Seamen,  23  Cows  and  Heifers,  3  Sucking 
Calves,  &  8  Mares,  and  none  Died  by  ye  way, 
though  they  met  with  as  terrible  a  storm  as  was 
almost  ever  heard  of." 

The  fine  hospitality  of  these  people,  already  com- 
mented upon,  is  best  described  by  themselves, 
since  it  is  done  with  a  sweet  absence  of  self-con- 
sciousness : 

"This  year  made  great  alterations  in  ye  Town 
of    Dorchester,    for    Mr.    Mather    and    ye    Godly 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  201 

people  that  came  with  him  from  Lancashire  want- 
ing a  place  to  settle  in,  some  of  ye  People  of  Dor- 
chester are  willing  to  remove  and  make  room  for 
them,  and  so  Mr.  Warren  and  about  half  ye  church 
removed  to  Winsor  in  Connecticut  Colony,  and 
Mr.  Mather  and  his  people  came  and  joined  with 
Mr.  Maverick  and  that  half  of  ye  church  that  were 
left,  and  from  these  people  so  united  are  ye  great- 
est part  of  ye  inhabitants  descended." 

It  was  William  Poole  of  Dorchester  who  made 
the  epitaph  for  his  own  tomb  which  has  come  down 
through  generations  in  this  more  concise  form: 

"  Behold  and  see  as  you  pass  by, 
As  you  are  now,  so  once  was  I, 
As  I  am  now,  so  you  must  be. 
Prepare  to  die  and  follow  me." 

The  original  was: — 

"  Ho  Passenger,  'tis  worth  the  Pains  to  stay 
And  take  a  Dead  man's  Lesson  by  ye  Way ; 
I  was  what  now  thou  art,  and  thou  shalt  be 
What  I  am  now,  what  odds  'twixt  me  &  thee! 
Now  go  thy  way;  but  stay,  take  one  word  more. 
Thy  Staff  for  aught  thou  loiow'st  Stands  next  ye  Door, 
Death  is  ye  Door,  ye  Door  of  Heaven  or  Hell: 
Be  warn'd,  be  arm'd.  Believe,  Repent,  Farewell." 

The  coming  of  George  Whitefield,  the  itinerant 
preacher,  made  its  impression  in  Dorchester  as 
elsewhere,  and  here  he  "preached  generally  twice 
a  day,  sometimes  in  ye  Meeting  houses  and  of- 
ten in  ye  Fields  unto  vast  assemblies."  Dor- 
chester records  state  apropos  of  Whitefield,  that 
"there  has  also  in  many  places  been  a  very  great 


202  Old  New  England  Churches 

addition  to  the  churches;  doubtless  there  will 
ere  long  be  some  printed  account  of  it."  The 
same  writer  tells  us  that  he  is  "  at  present  of  the 
Opinion  that  some  things  are  by  some  persons 
carried  too  far  contrary  to  ye  design  of  ye  Holy 
Spirit." 

There  is  a  fact  stated  somewhat  profanely, 
yet  with  Christian  intent,  that  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing Whitefield  there  was: 

"  an  early  frost  which  much  Damnified  ye  Indian 
com  in  ye  Fields,  and  after  it  was  Gathered, 
a  long  Series  of  wet  weather  &  a  very  hard  frost 
upon  it  that  damnified  it  a  great  deal  more." 

At  a  town  meeting  in  1668  Nicholas  Bolton 

"Did  agree  to  tend  ye  meeting  house  and  keep 
it  in  decent  order,  and  to  ring  ye  bell  in  ye  year 
insewing;  for  which  he  is  to  have  £s  of  which  los 
of  it  in  money  if  it  can  be  gott,  or  otherwise  to 
have  3d  upon  ye  shilling  for  that  los." 

John  Capen  and  Samuel  Clapp  made  the  bargain 
with  him. 

It  was  agreed  at  a  meeting  on  March  12,  1687, 
that  "  Sergt.  Leadbetter " — the  name  suggests  a 
superiority  in  prayer  or  song — "was  ordered  to 
speak  with  Isaac  Reill  to  make  a  way  up  to  the 
bell"  and  on  the  fifth  day  of  March,  1732,  the  town 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  203 

of  Dorchester  was  "  Legally  Warned  that  there  be 
allowed  and  Payed  out  of  ye  Town  Treasury  the 
sum  of  £^  I  OS  toward  ye  ringing  of  ye  bell  in  the 
evenings  of  nine  of  ye  year  Ensuing." 

The  second  meeting  house,  following  the 
migratory  one  of  Meeting  House  Hill,  was  built 
on  the  northwest  comer  of  Church  and  Winter 
streets.  It  was  square,  two-storied,  and  had  a 
centre  tower  which  contained  the  bell.  The  first 
meeting  was  held  there  November  17,  1678.  In 
1743  a  third  meeting  house  was  built,  a  little 
south  of  the  second.  An  elm  tree  presented  by 
William  Swan  now  marks  the  spot  where  the  pul- 
pit of  the  third  house  was  located.  A  remark- 
able piece  of  engineering  was  undertaken  with 
this  building  through  the  ingenuity  of  Deacon 
Edward  Pierce.  In  1795  he  had  the  house  divided 
along  the  ridge  pole,  and  the  halves  moved  apart 
fourteen  feet.  Then  he  moved  the  tower  and  the 
steeple  seven  feet  and  reunited  the  structure  by 
new  material.  The  steeple  was  on  the  west  end 
and  there  were  several  entrances  for  that  side, 
besides  a  porch  on  the  east,  and  several  erratic 
architectural  introductions  elsewhere.  It  was 
an  ingenious  contrivance  and  helped  out  with 
the  over-crowding  not   a  little.     So  much  rum 


204  Old  New  England  Churches 

and  other  refreshment  were  deemed  necessary 
by  the  workmen  during  the  process  of  "raring 
the  meeting  hous  "  that  casualties  were  frequent. 
In  1 75 1  Dorchester  acquired  an  English-made 
bell  which  served  for  many  impressive  purposes. 
It  summoned  Dorchester  to  meeting  on  Sabbath; 
it  called  together  the  city  fathers;  it  rang  for 
fire;  it  rang  for  death;  it  rang  for  peace;  but 
after  about  one  hundred  years  of  speech  it  began 
to  show  its  age.  It  cracked,  was  recast,  and  again 
hung  in  the  First  Church  steeple  where  it  rings 
to-day. 

Deacon  Ebenezer  Clapp  has  told  the  story  of 
the  First  Church  interior  and  told  it  well.  He 
says: 

"  On  entering  the  inner  door  of  the  meeting 
house,  and  turning  directly  to  the  left,  I  went 
about  twenty  feet,  then  turned  to  the  right  and 
went  a  few  feet,  and  was  led  into  the  second  pew 
on  the  left ;  the  pews  were  square,  seats  all  around, 
flag  bottomed  chairs  in  the  centre,  rungs  in  the 
pews,  where  the  children  could  peep  out,  like 
lambs  from  a  sheep-pen.  At  prayer-time  I  was 
placed  in  one  of  those  aforesaid  flag  bottomed 
chairs,  there  to  stand  through  the  service  (from 
which  I  had  a  good  view  out  of  a  south  and  east 
window) ;  for  all  stood  through  that  performance, 
and  they  were  deemed  lazy  Christians  who  being 
able-bodied  did  not  comply." 


First  Church  Dorchester,  Mass.  205 

We  read  sympathetically  of  the  fears,  the  ter- 
rors of  that  little  company  of  Dorchester,  know- 
ing that 

"the  people  conceived  themselves  in  danger, 
when  they  lay  down  and  when  they  rose  up,  when 
they  went  out  and  when  they  came  in;  their 
circumstances  were  such  that  it  was  deemed 
necessary  for  every  man  to  be  a  soldier." 

The  pathos  of  the  story  is  emphasised  by  the 
simplicity  of  its  telling,  so  obviously  was  it  set 
down  without  intention  to  impress,  merely  to 
give  a  patient  relation  of  fact.     An  old  record  says : 

"In  the  absence  of  bread,  they  feasted  them- 
selves with  fish.  The  women  once  a  day,  as 
the  tide  give  way,  resorted  to  the  muscle  and 
clam  banks,  which  were  a  fish  as  big  as  a  horse 
muscle,  where  they  daily  gathered  their  fami- 
lies' food,  with  much  heavenly  talk  of  the  pro- 
visions Christ  had  formerly  made  for  many 
thousands  of  his  followers  in  the  wilderness. 
Quoth  one,  'My  husband  has  travelled  as  far  as 
Plymouth  (which  was  near  forty  miles)  and  hath 
with  great  toil  brought  a  little  com  home  with 
him;  and  before  that  is  spent  the  Lord  will  surely 
provide.'  Quoth  the  other,  'Our  last  peck  of 
meal  is  now  in  the  oven  at  home  abaking,  and 
many  of  our  godly  neighbours  have  quite  spent 
all,  and  we  owe  one  loaf  of  that  little  we  have.' 
Then  spake  the  third,  'My  husband  hath  ven- 
tured himself  among  the  Indians  for  corn,  and  can 
get   none;    as   also   our  honoured   Governor  has 


2o6  Old  New  England  Churches 

distributed  his  so  far,  that  a  day  or  two  more  will 
put  an  end  to  his  store,  and  all  the  rest;  and  yet 
methinks  our  children  are  as  cheerful,  fat,  and 
lusty,  with  feeding  upon  these  muscles,  clams, 
and  other  fish,  as  they  were  in  England  with  their 
fill  of  bread;  which  makes  me  cheerful  in  the 
Lord's  providing  for  us,  being  further  confirmed 
by  the  exhortation  of  our  Pastor  to  trust  the 
Lord  with  providing  for  us,  whose  is  the  earth 
and  the  fullness  thereof.'  And  lo,  as  they  were 
thus  encouraging  one  another  they  lifted  up 
their  eyes  and  saw  two  ships  coming  in;  and 
presently  this  news  came  to  their  ears  that  they 
were  come  from  Ireland  full  of  victuals." 

As  we  read,  our  own  hearts  beat  more  quickly 
in  sympathy  with  the  rejoicing  felt  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

A  fairly  complete  record  tells  us  that  there  were 
fotirteen  nien  of  title  to  be  found  in  the  settle- 
ment, "  Mister  "  at  this  time  being  a  prefix  of  much 
distinction. 

Members  of  the  Dorchester  church  largely  con- 
stituted the  original  congregation  of  the  Second 
Church  of  Boston.  One  of  these,  Christopher 
Gibson,  admitted  as  free  man  in  1631,  left  a 
generous  legacy  "for  the  promoting  of  learn- 
ing in  Dorchester,"  and  with  this  was  purchased 
"the  school  pasture."  Disinterested  benevolence 
on   the   part    of   citizens    is   everywhere   visible. 


First  Church,  Dorchester,  Mass.  207 

John  Gornall,  a  tanner,  left  by  his  will  the  value 
of  forty  pounds  out  of  his  tan  yard 

"to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  some  godly  and 
honest  man,  to  be  by  him  loaned,  from  time  to 
time,  to  some  poor,  honest,  and  godly  mechanick 
to  assist  in  setting  him  up  in  business." 

The  first  code  of  laws  of  the  Colony  of  Connecti- 
cut was  compiled  by  another  of  Dorchester's 
early  citizens,  who  must  share  the  honour  with 
Dr.  Roger  Ludlow,  Esq.,  of  Hartford.  Colonel 
Pierce  kept  a  careful  diary  and  one  can  be  thrilled 
by  its  briefest  entries,  because  it  is  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  a  time  marked  by  the  absorption 
and  excitement  attendant  upon  early  revolution- 
ary conditions.  On  March  20,  1764,  there  was 
considerable  irritation  on  the  part  of  the  church- 
goers, which  Colonel  Pierce  found  of  sufficient 
importance  to  mention  in  his  diary:  "Mr.  Bow- 
man desired  to  have  them  sing  twice  in  the  fore- 
noon." On  April  3,  177 1,  "I  set  a  post  and  an 
elm  tree  at  the  meeting  house."  On  March  14, 
1773,  "Mr.  Bowman  refused  to  baptise  Mr.  Hall's 
child  although  he  demanded  it  in  public."  It  is 
perfectly  obvious  that  Mr.  Bowman  was  persona 
non  grata  in  that  congregation,  but  at  last  on 
December  14th,  according  to  Colonel  Pierce's  diary, 


2o8  Old  New  England  Churches 

"Was  a  church  meeting,  and  the  council  dis- 
missed Mr.  Jona  Boman  from  the  church  this  day. 
We  have  had  eight  months  controversy  with  Mr. 
Boman  but  got  rid  of  him  at  last  by  paying  him 
450  pounds  a  3^ear  to  go  away." 

Obviously  the  historian's  figures  are  wrong. 

Now  begins  the  strain,  the  excitement  of  the 
Revolution.  "June  13,  1774,  the  soldiers  land 
at  Boston."  September  i,  1774,  "There  was  an 
alaram;  there  was  about  8  or  9  thousand  men 
met  at  Cambridge."  October  4th,  1774,  "We 
had  our  training  at  Dorchester."  November  17, 
1774,  "The  officers  of  this  regiment  met  at 
Stouton  to  choose  their  field  officers.  Chosen 
for  the  same  Lemuel  Robinson,  Deacon  Gill,  and 
Joseph  Voce."     April  19,  1775, 

"This  day  there  was  a  terrible  battle  at  Lex- 
ington and  Concord  between  our  people  and  the 
soldiers  which  marcht  out  of  Boston;  the  soldiers 
fired  on  our  people,  and  then  the  battle  began, 
and  there  were  about  40  of  our  people  kild  and 
190  of  the  soldiers,  as  near  as  could  be  recollected." 

After  this  there  is  little  in  the  diary  that  does 
not  breathe  of  war  and  patriotism,  though  we 
do  find  that  on  May  14,  1778,  Mr.  John  Minot 
"Enoculated  his  family  with  smallpox  much 
against  the  minds  of  his  neighbours,"  and  that 
on  May  31st  of  the  same  year  "there  was  near 


Photograph  by  Halliday,  Boslo.. 
MEETING  HOUSE  HALL,  DORCHESTER,  MASSACHUSSETS 
The  first  church  in  Dorchester,  in  the  building  of  which  (original)  "everyone  had  his  sword  by  his  side,  and  so  buildeJ" 


First  Churchj  Dorchester,  Mass.  209 

a  hundred  prayed  for  this  day  under  the  occasion 
of  the  smallpox  in  Dorchester." 

Dorchester  s  early  church  records  are  perhaps 
more  representative  than  any  other,  of  the 
extraordinary  choice  of  baptismal  names  at  that 
time.  We  find  the  males  named  "Comfort, 
Consider,  Dependence,  Desire,  Freegrace,  Friend, 
Hopestill,  Praise-ever,  Preserve,  Purchase,  Rejoice, 
Remember,  Return,  Standfast,  True-cross, 
Unite,  Vigilance,  and  Watching."  And  the 
females,  "Amity,  Christian,  Hope,  Repent,  Rest, 
Thankful,  Virtue,  Waitawhile,  and  Waitstill." 
A  very  slight  exercise  of  imagination  enables  us 
to  read  a  volume  into  the  personal  history  of  the 
people  who  obviously  commemorated  events, 
psychical  situations,  and  secret  intelligence  in  the 
names  of  their  children.  The  epitaphs  on  the 
old  grave-stones  suggest  an  inclination  to  waggery 
in  the  town;  for  example  that  to  the  memory  of 
three  brothers,  Thomas,  Joseph,  and  Bray  Clarke: 

"  Here  lies  three  Clarks,  their  accounts  are  even. 
Entered  on  earth,  carried  up  to  Heaven." 

This  conversion  of  a  surname  to  an  Englishism 
to  suit  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  seems  to 
rob  the  departure  of  these  three  gentlemen  of 
much  of  its  seriousness. 


« 


BROOKFIELD  CHURCH,  BROOKFIELD, 

MASS. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Brookfield  Church,  Brookfield,  Massachu- 
setts 

THERE  was  worship  in  Brookfield,  presum- 
ably under  a  tree,  a  good  many  years  be- 
fore the  church  was  organised,  but  at  length  one  was 
established  under  the  direction  of  the  General  Court 
very  much  as  a  Carnegie  library  would  be  to-day. 
Before  privileges  were  given  by  the  General  Court 
to  this  parish,  before  land  was  set  aside  for  it,  there 
had  to  be  a  guarantee  that  twenty  families  would  be 
there  within  three  years.  The  minister  must 
meet  the  approval  of  the  Court,  his  support  be 
provided  for  "  either  by  setting  apart  of  lands  or 
what  else  shall  be  thought  mete."  Thirteen  years 
after  this  the  settlement  was  incorporated  and  cMled 
Brookfield,  but  there  had  been  a  church  building 
previously,  although  we  have  no  details  concerning 
it;  and  before  it  was  built  services  were  held  in 
the  houses  or  in  the  fields.  On  August  4,  1675, 
the  little  settlement  and  its  church  were  wiped 
out.     Indians  came  down  upon  them,  fired  the 

village,   and    destroyed    it.     Those    of    the    in- 

213 


214  Old  New  England  Churches 

habitants  who  escaped  came  back  to  the  settle- 
ment later  and  brought  others  with  them. 
After  this  their  formal  worship  was  intermittent 
and  services  could  be  held  only  when  a  minister 
could  be  secured.  The  year  1698  "marked  the 
beginning  of  a  continuous  church  and  ministry," 
and  20  pounds  were  raised  by  the  town  toward 
a  preacher's  support. 

The  supervision  of  the  General  Court  over  Brook- 
field  was  rigid  and  extremely  paternal,  for  its  yearly 
grant  was  made  to  the  parish  "  always  provided 
that  the  ministers  employed  should  be  approved 
by  the  ministry  of  the  neighbouring  towns."  As 
yet  there  was  no  church  building,  but  Gilbert's  fort, 
which  afterward  became  the  residence  of  the  one 
settled  minister,  was  chosen  as  a  place  of  regular 
worship.  In  1716  the  new  meeting  house  built  on 
the  old  site  was  completed,  its  minister  was  or- 
dained and  installed,  and  Brookfield  parish  became 
an  established  fact.  It  was  a  very  orderly  settle- 
ment. Its  affairs  were  carried  on  in  a  housekeeper- 
like  way,  and  when  it  was  actually  organised  it  was 

"Voted  to  give  Mr.  Cheney  for  his  salary  fifty- 
two  pounds  yearly  for  three  years,  and  to  raise 
40s  a  year  until  it  comes  to  70  pounds  and  then 
to  stay." 

"  Voted  to  build  him  a  house  and  bam  accord- 


Brook-field  Church,  Brookfield,  Mass.       215 

ing  to  the  dimensions  he  has  given,  Mr.  Cheney 
providing  glass,  nails,  and  iron." 

"Voted  to  break  up,  fence  and  'fitt'  to  sow 
eight  acres  of  land." 

"Voted  to  get  Mr.  Cheney  25  cords  of  wood 
yearly,  his  lifetime." 

"  Voted  to  give  Mr.  Cheney  each  man  one  day's 
work  for  six  years  his  house  and  bam  to  be  built 
in  four  years,  always  providing  Mr.  Cheney  be 
our  ordained  minister." 

This  is  an  exceptionally  coherent  and  well 
thought  out  document  for  that  time.  The  divi- 
sion of  labour  for  Mr.  Cheney's  benefit  and  the 
relative  liberality  of  Brookfield's  provision  for 
him  are  most  unusual  in  the  history  of  New 
England  parishes.  No  wonder  that  their  first 
preacher  dwelt  with  them  for  thirty  years. 

Later  on,  Brookfield  split  into  two  parishes, 
the  present  town  of  Warren  having  branched  off 
from  the  orginal  settlement.  Trouble  came  to 
the  parish  in  1749  when  a  new  building  was  taken 
under  advisement.  A  lack  of  tact  on  the  preacher's 
part  did  not  help  the  situation.  Foster's  Hill 
had  been  the  site  of  the  first  church  and  it  was 
then  the  centre  of  the  settlement,  but  in  the 
course  of  years  the  residential  centre  changed, 
and  many  had  to  travel  miles  in  order  to  reach 
the  church.     Everybody  wanted  a  new  house  but 


2i6  Old  New  England  Churches 

everybody  also  wanted  a  different  site.  The 
ecclesiastical  difficulties  did  not  affect  the  town 
administration,  as  they  might  have  done  in  other 
instances,  the  town  and  the  church  being  largely 
independent  of  each  other.  At  last  the  people 
agreed  upon  "  the  height  of  land  near  Seth  Banis- 
ter's, now  known  as  the  Mall."  The  house  was 
built,  and  the  first  service  was  held  in  it  on  the 
fifteenth  of  September,  1754.  The  materials  of 
the  old  house  were  used  in  finishing  the  new,  but 
the  choice  of  "  spot "  on  which  to  build  it  brought 
about  the  division  of  the  old  precinct  and  parish. 

"On  October  i6th,  same  year,  the  parish  at  a 
regular  meeting  held  in  the  new  meeting  house, 
voted  to  assess  the  inhabitants  the  3^early  tax, 
including  the  minister's  salary — 64  pounds;  also 
something  for  finishing  the  new  meeting  house. 
The  next  day,  October  17th,  a  petition  was  sent 
to  the  General  Court  containing  the  requests, — 
First  to  restrain  the  parish  from  collecting  the 
said  tax,  and  second  to  see  if  the  parish  might 
not  be  equally  divided." 

In  response  a  committee  from  the  council  and 
house  of  representatives  was  sent  to  Brookfield 
to  investigate  the  conditions. 

The  report  was  that  the  feeling  of  bitterness 
had  become  so  intense  that  division  seemed  the 


Brook  field  Church,  Brook  field,  Mass.        217 

only  way  to  settle  the  trouble.     Division  was  the 
result. 

More  than  forty  years  afterward  the  creed  was 
changed  from  Trinitarian  to  Unitarian,  and  after 
this  the  preachers  were  chosen  largely  for  their 
liberality.  The  Rev.  Micah  Stone  came  to  the 
church  in  1800,  chiefly  because  of  his  breadth  of 
theological  opinion.  "  But  whether  the  people 
grew  more  liberal,  or  Mr.  Stone  less  so,  or  both, 
is  not  known."  Howbeit,  he  was  dismissed  after 
twenty-six  years,  on  the  plea  that  his  preaching 
was  too  evangelical.  Whether  Brookfield  knew 
it  or  not,  this  could  hardly  have  been  the  reason. 
After  twenty-six  years  of  acceptable  service,  one 
man,  circumscribed  by  continuous  living  in  one  lo- 
cality with  one  people,  is  not  likely  to  change  his 
point  of  view  very  materially.  In  all  probability  Mr. 
Stone  was  as  liberal  in  1826  as  he  was  in  1800, 
but  the  young  folks  had  grown  up  in  these  twenty- 
six  years,  and  what  seemed  liberal  to  the  old  folks 
doubtless  appeared  conservative  to  the  young. 
The  pastor  who  had  so  faithfully  served  them 
was  permitted  to  preach  if  he  chose  on  those  Sun- 
days which  chanced  to  find  the  congregation 
preacher-less,  and  if  anybody  wished  to  hear  him 
he  was  at  liberty  to  do  so.     Mr.  Stone  accepted  a 


2i8  Old  New  England  Churches 

bonus  of  one  hundred  dollars  and  the  situation. 
Later  the  more  conservative  enlisted  with  "  Priest 
Stone,"  as  he  was  called,  to  form  the  first  evan- 
gelical society  in  Brookfield,  and  under  these  con- 
ditions he  preached  for  twenty-five  years  more, 
when  he  died. 

For  five  years  Brookfield  had  a  really  scholarly 
man  in  the  Rev.  George  R.  Noyes,  who  preached  to 
the  church,  newly  made  Unitarian.  Very  soon  he 
resigned  his  ministry  to  become  a  professor  in 
Harvard  University.  In  forming  the  Evangelical 
church  a  lawsuit  grew  out  of  theological  disagree- 
ments. The  communion  service  had  been  made 
by  Paul  Revere  in  six  pieces  and  it  was  the  gift  of 
the  widow  of  Ephraim  Barttell,  who  left  a  bequest 
of  one  hundred  pounds  for  the  purchase.  The 
deacons  who  left  the  original  church  with  Mr. 
Stone,  carried  off  this  service.  In  many  instances, 
for  example  in  the  case  of  King's  Chapel  and  Dr. 
Caner,  this  portable  property  seems  to  have  met 
many  vicissitudes.  According  to  Massachusetts  law, 
the  deacons  of  a  church  are  the  custodians  of  all  its 
furniture  and  at  the  time  they  carried  off  the 
Brookfield  service  nobody  protested;  but  they 
went  too  far,  when  they  refused  to  lend  these 
vessels  for  the  purpose  of  celebrating  the  com- 


Brookfield  Church,  Brookfield,  Mass.       219 

munion.  The  church  went  to  law  about  it;  the 
parish  won  and  got  back  the  vessels  they  never 
would  have  fought  to  claim  if  the  deacons  had 
been  a  little  more  accommodating. 

After  the  Revolution  the  church  acquired  a 
steeple,  a  bell,  and  a  clock,  and  in  1797  the  music 
was  attended  to,  but  it  was  not  until  1822  that 
Brookfield  church  got  a  stove  or  until  1830  that 
it  had  a  library.  The  Brookfield  meeting  house, 
like  others,  was  used  for  all  public  purposes,  town 
caucuses,  voting,  and  so  on.  Part  of  the  time  the 
town  paid  rent  to  the  church. 

The  church  covenant  in  171 7  contained  three 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  words;  but  the  last 
covenant — 1890 — ^was  expressed  in  twenty-five 
words,  proving  that  considerable  simplicity  had 
slipped  in  along  with  regeneration. 

Brookfield  was  a  unit  in  going  to  war.  We  find 
for  eight  unbroken  generations,  public  service  ren- 
dered by  some  of  its  families.  ^ 

In  1904,  for  the  first  time,  the  parish  celebrated' 
the  anniversary  of  its  church  organisation.  The 
occasion  revealed  a  curious  error  in  history — which 
is  an  argument  in  favour  of  the  preservation  of 
records,  especially  those  of  public  interest. 

The  present  town  of  Brookfield,  having  been 


220  Old  New  England  Churches 

designated  the  "Third  Precinct"  by  the  General 
Court  in  1754,  was  universally  supposed  to  be  the 
third  church  of  the  old  town.  Minister  and  people 
therefore  planned  to  celebrate  the  one  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary,  but  the  first  record,  dated 
January  15,  1755,  began  thus:  "  A  legal  meeting  of 
the  parish  was  held  in  the  meeting  house."  At 
once  the  question  arose,  "  How  came  a  parish  just 
created  to  have  a  meeting  house?"  On  reading 
further  it  was  found  that  nothing  but  routine  parish 
business  was  done.  Clearly  there  was  another  chap- 
ter. It  was  found  at  last  in  the  form  of  a  package 
of  loose  sheets  of  paper  of  all  sizes,  but  of  undoubted 
authenticity,  containing  the  record  of  the  parish 
previous  to  the  division  of  the  old  First  Precinct. 

These  records  soon  cleared  up  the  mystery  by 
showing  that  when  the  section  was  divided  into  the 
First  and  Third  Precincts  the  church  was  left  in 
the  Third  Precinct,  with  all  its  equipments,  in- 
cluding the  pastor. 

They  also  showed  every  action:  the  vote  to  build, 
to  discontinue  services,  to  tear  down  the  old  meet- 
ing house,  and  to  instruct  the  minister  to  hold 
future  services  of  worship  in  the  new  meeting  house, 
thus  proving  that  what  was  supposed  to  be  the 
third  was  in  reality  the  first  church  of  the  old  town. 


^- 


FIRST  PARISH  CHURCH:  OLD  NORTH  EAST  CHURCH,  BROOKFIELD,  MASSACHUSETTS 
Whose  communion  service  was  made  by  Paul  Revere   given  by  Mrs.  Ephraim  Barttell.  and  finally  carried  off  by  the 

deacons  of  the  origmal  society  ^ 


ST.  MICHAEL'S  CHURCH,  MARBLE- 
HEAD,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

St.    Michael's   Church,    Marblehead,    Massa- 
chusetts 

UNTIL  we  read  of  the  first  church  build- 
ing in  New  England  in  17 14,  the  history 
of  St.  Michael's,  Marblehead,  is  obscure.  One 
writer  of  records  suggests  that  the  parish  had 
not  been  without  service  all  this  time,  but  that 
in  all  probability  the  "frigates  and  merchant 
vessels  that  touched  at  Marblehead  on  their  way 
to  Boston  supplied  a  chaplain  or  lay  reader." 
When  St.  Michael's  Church  was  built  the  town 
of  Marblehead  was  very  near  dissolution.  It 
had  no  trade  and  no  enterprise.  The  people 
lived  to  themselves  with  isolated  interests.  There 
seems  to  have  been  no  political,  sentimental,  or 
military  resistance  when  from  time  to  time  En- 
gland's acts  aroused  the  other  colonists,  almost 
without  exception;  but  Marblehead  was  all  alive 
when  pirates  or  a  press-gang  threatened  their 
fisheries  or  themselves.  It  was  General  Nicholson 
who   headed   the   subscription  list   when   money 

was  needed  to  build  this  church.     His  govem- 

223 


2  24  Old  New  England  Churches 

mental  methods  were  not  all  that  coiild  be  desired, 
but  he  has  left  behind  a  proper  record  as  a  friend, 
as  a  promoter  of  education,  and  as  a  man  who 
resented  the  ills  of  the  badly  used  and  that  he  tried 
to  remedy  them.  King's  Chapel  in  Boston  and 
Queen  Anne's  already  existed  when  St.  Michael's 
was  built,  but  this  church  alone  remains  an  en- 
during monument  to  the  Episcopal  faith  in  New 
England. 

In  all  probability,  the  names  on  the  early  parish 
records  of  patrons  to  this  church  and  contributors 
to  its  fund,  implied  "  non-resident  members  "  and 
it  is  likely  that  the  church  was  really  brought  into 
being  by  the  transient  "masters  of  English  ves- 
sels trading  at  this  port."  Part  of  St.  Michael's 
records  were  incorporated  with  those  of  King's 
Chapel,  Boston.  Though  lost  to  local  fame  they 
have  become  a  part  of  New  England  history. 
In  looking  over  the  documents  of  this  Episcopal 
folk  we  find  much  less  of  illiteracy  than  we  do  in 
the  records  of  the  Puritans.  There  is  still  much 
to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  spelling,  but  they 
would  pass  a  fair  examination. 

General  Nicholson  took  with  him  to  England 
a  petition  to  the  "Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts"  which  bore   a 


''ift--««;w^^i 


"  I 


22     o 


Q 

— 

<: 

"rt 

w 

o. 

a 

8 

w 

•S 

n 

as 

< 

s 

0 

St.  Michael's  Church,  Marblehead,  Mass.   225 

request  that  a  preacher  be  sent  to  Marblehead 
"  with  all  convenient  speed,  with  the  usual  salary- 
allowed  their  missionaries": 

"Of  what  consideration  your  petitions  are, 
will  be  seen  by  the  number  of  their  names  and  the 
value  of  their  subscriptions  underwritten.  We 
must  also  add  that  the  town  of  Marblehead  (next 
Boston)  is  the  greatest  place  of  trade  in  this  prov- 
ince, daily  adding  to  their  numbers  persons 
chiefly  of  the  Church  of  England.  And  by  the 
blessing  of  God  we  have  a  certain  prospect  that 
the  church  here  will  be  every  day  increased  and 
flourished  more  and  more." 

From  what  we  know  of  Marblehead  at  that  time 
we  can  judge  that  the  truth  was  stretched  slightly 
in  the  interests  of  acquiring  a  preacher.  The 
town's  opportunities  may  have  been  as  great  as 
Boston's  commercially,  but  she  had  neglected 
them  woefully. 

By  this  petition  we  see  that  the  church  was  a 
missionary  result  of  that  well-ordered  institution 
— ^the  Church  of  England.  Here  was  no  wretched 
log  hut,  no  fanatical  stiflerings  undertaken  by  the 
people,  no  glorying  in  unnecessary  affliction  such 
as  the  Puritans  felt,  but  a  very  orderly  erection 
of  a  structure,  the  material  of  which  was  im- 
ported complete  from  England.  The  house  was 
raised  on  the  second  day  of  September,    17 14, 


2  26  Old  New  England  Churches 

with  or  without  the  usual  allowance  of  "ruhm 
and  cacks."  The  arched  roof,  simulating  a  cross, 
can  still  be  seen  under  another  roof  of  peculiar 
shape. 

The  Rev.  William  Shaw  came  to  the  community 
the  year  following  the  petition.  Considerable 
trouble  arose  presently  when  the  selectmen  and 
assessors  undertook  to  tax  the  people  of  St. 
Michael's  to  support  the  Congregational  preachers, 
declaring  that  the  law  of  the  province  decreed 
that  this  tax  must  be  paid.  St.  Michael's  people 
declared  they  "would  not  pay  tribute  to  dis- 
senters." Then  came  still  another  Puritan  society 
and  St.  Michael's  was  overwhelmed  indeed,  since 
it  worshipped  with  neither  society  and  yet  was 
expected  to  pay  tribute  to  both.  The  rector  felt 
especially  beset,  and  he  wrote  home  to  England 
that  a  new  meeting  house  had  been  built  in 
"damnable  spite  and  malice  against  our  church." 
The  poor  man  must  have  known  better  when  he 
said  it,  but  he  was  sorely  tried  and  had  plenty  of 
cause  for  resentment.  The  people  of  the  parish 
voluntarily  contributed  to  their  own  church,  but 
they  still  resented  taxation  for  the  Puritan  meet- 
ing houses,  though  in  consequence  their  estates 
were   likely   to   be    confiscated.     Obviously  this 


St.  MichaeVs  Church,  Marblehead,  Mass.   227 

was  the  Puritans'  opportunity.  The  Church  of 
England  had  made  it  exceedingly  warm  for  their 
fathers,  and  now  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  Puritans 
was  set  down  a  woebegone  little  parish  which  it 
was  quite  likely  the  fathers  could  make  one  bite  of. 
As  soon  as  the  church  came  into  existence  not 
only  was  it  taxed  to  maintain  the  meeting  houses 
but  it  was  loaded  down  also  with  taxes  levied  in 
the  spirit  of  reprisal,  and  the  situation  became  so 
intolerable  that  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, who  attempted  to  restrain  the  selectmen  and 
assessors  without  success.  A  joke  appeared  through 
all  the  tragedy  when  the  parish  clerk  undertook  to 
expound  the  Gospel  and  run  opposition  to  the 
rector.  This  was  beyond  ministerial  endurance 
and  the  rector  fled  to  England.  His  successor 
came  out  in  the  "dead  of  winter."  If  he  had 
arrived  in  the  summer  doubtless  he  would  have 
found  it  cold  enough,  but  by  spring  the  parish 
seemed  to  have  warmed  considerably  and  his 
administration  was  a  success.  This  second  rector, 
Rev.  David  Masson,  finding  his  people  still  serfs 
to  the  Puritan  meeting  house,  made  a  successful 
appeal  to  the  Governor.  By  this  time  the  parish 
had  undertaken  to  meet  all  charges  resulting 
from  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  churchmen  to 


228  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  undesired  tax  levied  upon  them.  The  selectmen 
and  assessors  of  Marblehead  were  rendered  power- 
less and  St.  Michael's  became  an  unhampered  fact. 

By  1724  it  was  a  fairly  comfortable  and  suc- 
cessful parish,  and  application  was  made  for  its 
christening  to  General  Nicholson,  at  that  time 
governor  of  South  Carolina.  He  named  the 
church,  and  then  St.  Michael's  prudent,  deter- 
mined, and  successful  Mr.  Masson  went  hence  to 
take  part  in  the  marriage  ceremony  of  George 
Washington  and  Mrs.  Custis.  Thus  began  the 
romantic,  sentimental,  and  vicariously  military 
history  of  St.  Michael's. 

The  first  brass  chandelier  of  colonial  associa- 
tion was  given  to  the  church  in  1732  by  John 
Elbridge,  Esq.,  collector  of  the  Port  of  Bristol, 
England,  along  with  an  oil  portrait  of  himself. 
In  1745,  the  beautiful  communion  service  of  solid 
silver  was  presented  by  David  le  Gallis.  Need- 
less to  say  St.  Michael's  suffered  no  disturbance 
through  Whitefield's  visit,  although  Puritan 
Marblehead  went  into  the  ordinary  emotional 
ferment.  The  reasonable  methods  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  had  by  this  time  begun  to  have  their 
effect  upon  the  Puritans,  and  St.  Michael's  ac- 
quired supporters  from  the  enemy's  party. 


St.  Michael's  Church,  Marhlehead,  Mass.    229 

The  Hon.  Samuel  Rhodes  relates  an  interesting 
incident  that  concerns  the  Rev.  Peter  Bours,  one 
of  St.  Michael's  rectors: 

"  It  seems  that  among  other  servants  the  rever- 
end gentleman  owned  a  very  ill-tempered  and 
vicious  woman.  One  night  in  a  fit  of  indignation 
she  attempted  to  take  the  life  of  her  master  and 
the  next  day,  having  some  regard  for  his  personal 
safety,  he  sold  her.  With  the  money  thus  pro- 
cured Mr.  Bours  purchased  a  lifesize  portrait  of 
himself,  painted  by  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
artists  in  the  country.  This  portrait  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  a  member  of  the  parish." 

By  1763  Marblehead  had  become  a  successful 
town.  Its  commerce  had  increased,  it  had  a  good 
foreign  trade,  and  as  a  port  it  was  only  second  in 
importance.  In  1766  Marblehead  elected  the 
only  churchman  who  sat  in  the  General  Assembly. 
Then  came  the  Stamp  Act,  and  it  was  on  board 
a  Marblehead  merchant  ship  that  the  first  blood- 
shed of  the  Revolution  occurred.  This  was  the 
direct  result  of  the  "  impressment  of  American 
seamen."  Not  unnaturally  the  churchmen  were 
on  the  fence.  They  were  more  entirely  without 
any  other  interest  than  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  as  they  understood  it,  than  were  the 
Puritans  themselves.     Being  a  missionary  people, 


230  Old  New  England  Churches 

their  hearts  were  in  England,  and  for  that  matter 
so  were  their  interests,  hence  it  was  not  unnatural 
that  the  Puritans  should  denounce  their  church 
as  "nursing  her  children  with  milk  unfriendly  to 
the  sons  of  liberty."  Whitefield  came  again  and 
sent  to  the  devil,  as  far  as  was  in  his  power,  "  the 
church,  the  rector,  and  all  belonging  to  it,"  which 
did  not  make  the  parish  of  St.  Michael's  look  any 
more  favourably  upon  the  cause  of  those  who 
were  by  this  time  "Americans." 

New  England  was  now  "  home  "  to  many,  and  the 
terms  patriotism,  treason,  goodness,  wickedness, 
right  and  wrong  had  become  so  confused,  motives 
so  confounded,  interests  so  divided,  that  Marble- 
head  did  not  know  in  its  own  New  England  phrase 
"whether  it  was  coming  or  going."  Even  if  the 
Revolution  had  not  extended  beyond  the  little  com- 
munity of  Marblehead,  she  would  have  had  pretty 
much  all  she  could  do  to  sort  her  own  affairs. 
In  1 77 1  we  find  in  the  church  of  St.  Michael's  an 
attention  to  detail  and  personal  comfort  that  is 
quite  as  startling  as  it  is  interesting.  A  door  was 
cut  in  the  side  of  the  church  to  suit  the  convenience 
of  a  fat  man  who  was  much  too  large  "to  enter 
an  ordinary  pew  door"  and  this  in  the  records  is 
rather  delicately  alluded  to  thus:  "At  present  it 


St.  MichaeVs  Church,  Marblehead,  Mass.    231 

is  convenient  to  keep  open  the  door  leading  into 
the  garden  of  the  late  William  Bourne,  Esq." 

And  now  for  the  first  time  we  read  of  a  reason- 
able grievance  against  St.  Michael's  church.  Un- 
til this  time  the  Puritans  had  been  merely  exercis- 
ing their  privilege  of  persecuting  people  who  did 
not  "live  and  move  and  have  a  being"  pre- 
cisely as  they  did,  but  now  the  question  became 
more  than  one  of  personal  prejudice.  The  Church 
of  England  stood  for  the  Tory  element,  and  was, 
of  course,  execrated.  The  members  were  divided 
necessarily,  a  good  many  of  them  strongly  op- 
posing the  measures  of  the  British  Government, 
but  at  the  same  time  determined  to  maintain 
their  religious  preferences  and  privileges.  This 
was  but  a  preliminary  skirmish;  when  it  came  to 
the  real  battle,  Marblehead  was  a  unit,  and  it 
was  largely  Marblehead  that  supplied  the  Ameri- 
can navy.  It  was  Marblehead' s  own  son,  James 
Mugford,  who  captured  the  British  vessel  Hope, 
which  bore  munitions  of  war.  To  add  to  the 
ferment,  St.  Michael's  rector  proved  his  courage 
by  openly  declaring  himself  a  loyalist.  Mr.  Samuel 
Rhodes  writes  deprecatingly: 

"Mr.  Weeks,  though  an  exceedingly  pious  and 
efficient  minister,  was  not  very  discreet,  and  took 


232  Old  New  England  Churches 

no  pains  to  conceal  his  loyalty  to  the  King  and 
his  desire  for  the  overthrow  of  the  enemies  of  the 
Crown." 

Most  of  us  will  be  likely  to  disagree  with  the 
spirit  of  this  judgment.  Mr.  Weeks  may  have 
been  indiscreet,  but  it  is  certain  that  his  down- 
right courage  added  dignity  to  St.  Michael's  and 
gave  to  it  a  prof ounder  meaning  than  all  the  com- 
bined ministerial  discretion  of  New  England  could 
have  done.  His  determination  to  read  prayers 
for  the  preservation  of  the  royal  family  did  not  do 
England  any  great  deal  of  good,  and  it  raised  a 
tempest  in  the  home  teapot,  already  big  enough 
since  the  tea-tax,  but  his  moral  courage  made  for 
good  nevertheless. 

Those  who  found  the  situation  hardest  were 
the  staunch  patriots  among  the  churchmen. 
One  of  these  was  a  major  in  the  Marblehead  regi- 
ment, and  another  a  commander  at  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill.  Boston  clergymen  may  have  been 
in  accord  with  Mr.  Weeks,  but  they  had  stopped 
praying  for  the  royal  family  while  he  continued 
to  do  so  for  more  than  a  year  after  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  signed.  In  a  fair-minded, 
Christian  spirit  he  put  up  petitions  for  the  royal 
family  as  well  as  for  the  Hottentot,  and  doubtless 


St.  Michael's  Church,  Marblehead,  Mass.    233 

he  prayed  even  for  the  Puritan.  In  all  probability 
he  mixed  his  values,  feeling  that  the  Puritan  most 
needed  his  prayers,  while  he  probably  prayed  for 
the  royal  family  from  courtesy  and  fondness.  In 
time  this  had  to  be  stopped  as  it  was  too  much 
for  human  nature  and  patriotism.  The  Provincial 
Congress  came  down  heavily  upon  Mr.  Weeks,  and 
St.  Michael's  church  was  closed.  When  Indepen- 
dence was  declared,  all  Marblehead  went  mad, 
the  church  bells  rang  for  a  week,  bonfires  burned 
on  every  hilltop  for  seven  nights,  and  even  St. 
Michael's  had  to  join  the  procession,  because 
men  broke  in,  pulled  the  royal  coat  of  arms  from 
above  the  chancel,  and  rang  the  bell  till  it  cracked. 
The  rector  continued  to  hold  service  in  private 
houses  and  consistently  prayed  for  his  king  and 
for  his  enemy  the  Puritan;  but  in  the  end  it  was 
majority-rule  and  he  had  to  flee  to  Nova  Scotia. 
Some  of  his  people  went  with  him,  and  they  took 
the  communion  service  along,  but  must  havb 
had  a  change  of  heart  because  it  was  afterward 
restored. 

The  amazing  zeal  of  this  society  was  demon- 
strated in  an  act  of  Ashley  Bo  wen  who,  fearing 
that  in  some  riotous  outbreak  all  copies  of  the 
Book   of   Common   Prayer   might   be   destroyed, 


234  Old  New  England  Churches 

copied  with  his  own  hand  the  entire  volume; 
a  remarkable  and  laborious  undertaking.  Chant- 
ing was  introduced  at  St.  Michael's,  for  the  first 
time  in  America,  probably  in  1786.  At  this 
time  there  came  to  the  support  of  the  church, 
Colonel  William  R.  Lee,  Colonel  Marston  Watson, 
Captain  Joshua  Ome,  Captain  William  Blackler 
and  the  Hon.  Samuel  Sewall.  Captain  Blackler 
commanded  the  boat  on  that  bitter  Christmas 
night  on  which  George  Washington  crossed  the 
Delaware  to  fight  the  battle  of  Trenton.  Mr. 
Harris's  pastorate  began  in  1791,  and  he  resigned 
only  to  become  president  of  Columbia  College 
in  New  York.  The  church  fell  upon  parlous  times 
almost  immediately  after  the  resignation  of  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  Bosworth  Smith,  who  became 
rector  in  18 18.  St.  Michael's  was  closed,  the 
glebe  was  sold  to  pay  off  the  parish  debts,  etc., 
and  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  church  w^ould  ever 
be  opened  again  for  liturgic  services.  An  at- 
tempt to  re-charter  the  building  and  turn  it 
into  a  "  Congregational  meeting  house  "  was  pres- 
ently made  by  Mr.  Reed  when  the  Channing 
movement  was  in  full  swing,  but  the  old  pro- 
prietors objected.  The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
made  a  protest  to  the  Legislature,  and  with  the 


St.  Michael's  Church,  Marblehead,  Mass.    235 

Rev.  Mr.  Carlisle's  help  succeeded  in  maintaining 
the  status  of  St.  Michael's.  This  imminent  peril 
roused  the  parish.  The  church  was  opened,  ser- 
vices reestablished,  and  in  1833  "^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^ 
its  feet  again. 

The  old  church  has  a  record  of  no  less  deter- 
mined purpose  and  strength  in  overcoming  ob- 
stacles than  that  of  any  of  the  Puritan  churches. 
St.  Michael's  trials  differed  from  those  met  by  the 
Puritans  in  establishing  their  houses.  Its  pur- 
poses were  different,  and  so  were  its  methods; 
but  with  all  their  disagreements  the  two  peoples 
were  bound  to  meet  upon  the  common  ground  of 
sincerity  and  strength,  and  we  lose  sight  of  all 
but  the  similitude  of  Christian  virtues. 


FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH, 
SALEM,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts 

THE  Salem  church  was  the  first  Congre- 
gational church  completely  formed  on  the 
American  continent.  The  organisation  was  made 
in  July  and  August,  1629,  and  the  only  freemen 
in  Salem  at  that  time  were  necessarily  church 
members. 

In  all  probability  ministrations  at  Salem  began 
under  the  traditional  tree,  though  there  is  no 
specific  record  to  that  effect;  we  do  know  how- 
ever, that  the  congregation  worshipped  from 
1629  to  1634  in  an  unfinished  building.  Not 
long  after  this,  money  was  appropriated  to  erect 
a  meeting  house,  and  bills  were  paid  "  for  daubing 
and  glazing."  In  1639  there  was  an  agreement 
made  with  John  Pickering  to  build  a  new  meeting 
house,  but  in  all  probability  this  was  only  an 
addition.  The  detail  of  agreement  with  Picker- 
ing includes  "one  catted  chimney  12  feet  long 
.   ,    .   sufficient  windows    .    .    .    and  a  pair  of  stairs 

to  ascend  to  the  gallery."     In  1647  we  read  of 

239 


240  Old  New  England  Churches 

this  fragmentary  structure  that  "  Mr.  George  Cur- 
win  and  WilUam  Lord  have  undertaken  to  provide 
stone  and  clay  for  repairs.  .  .  .  Mr.  Curwin 
has  promised  to  provide  for  covering  the  meeting 
house  500  nails,  and  is  promised  to  be  paid  to  his 
content."  This  matter  of  nails  was  not  so  trifling 
in  a  day  when  temporarily  empty  buildings  were 
burned  by  miscreants  for  the  chance  of  stealing 
the  nails  from  the  ruins. 

Finally  in  1670  this  patched-up  little  house  gave 
place  to  one  upon  land  donated  by  the  town  "  at 
the  west  end  of  the  old  meeting  house  toward  the 
prison."  The  old  building  continued  to  have  its 
uses,  becoming  a  "  skoole  house  and  watch  house." 
It  was  to  be  carried  "into  some  convenient  place 
where  it  may  be  reformed  for  the  town's  use"  and 
"  the  old  pulpit  and  the  deacons'  seat  be  given  to 
the  farmers."  No  part  of  it  was  to  be  lost,  and 
New  England  economists  distributed  the  under- 
pinning and  the  clay  of  the  old  meeting  house  to 
Mr.  Fisk.  The  remnant  of  the  structure  found 
a  noble  use  for  a  long  time  after  this,  it  being 
converted  into  a  place  "for  teaching  reading, 
writing,  ciphering,  and  navigation."  There  is  a 
tradition,  but  no  record,  that  later  a  part  of 
the  old  meeting  house  was  used  as  a  tavern.     This 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  241 

tradition  is  preserved  through  the  Pierce,  Pope, 
and  Proctor  famihes,  lineal  descendants  of  Thorn- 
dike  Proctor,  locally  celebrated  in  his  time,  and  who 
is  supposed  to  have  bought  part  of  the  old  meeting 
house  for -tavern  purposes.  Local  history  seems 
to  substantiate  this  legend,  but  there  are  certain 
architectural  peculiarities  of  the  present  building 
which  compel  one  to  believe  that  it  is  identical 
with  the  first  church,  though  the  fact  cannot  be 
established  with  certainty.  The  details  are  de- 
ductions and  facts  drawn  from  a  report  made  by 
C.  M.  Endicott,  Francis  Peabody,  George  D. 
Phippen,  A.  C.  Goodell,  and  Ira  J.  Patch  in 
i860. 

The  people  occupied  their  third  house  in  17 18, 
and  worshipped  there  for  one  hundred  and  eight 
years  till  the  present  brick  structure  was  dedi- 
cated in  1826. 

In  common  with  most  of  the  meeting  houses  of 
New  England,  those  of  old  Salem  were  thatched 
and  daubed,  because  shingles  and  clay  boards 
(clapboards)  were  practically  out  of  the  question. 
The  name  of  Thatcher  is  one  so  prevalent  in  New 
England  as  to  suggest  that  thatching  was  the 
business  of  many  of  its  citizens.  The  family 
names  of  the  Puritans  were  often  descriptive  of 


242  Old  New  England  Churches 

their  callings  as  witness  Wainwright,  Baker, 
Hooper,  Farmer,  Currier,  and  Turner;  and  their 
baptismal  names  as  surely  reflected  their  mental 
and  spiritual  sympathies.  Weeden  in  his  eco- 
nomic and  social  history  of  New  England  discusses 
thatchers'  tools  in  1662,  and  mentions  the  exist- 
ence of  the  business  in  1690,  hence  there 
were  certainly  thirty  years  of  thriving  business 
for  the  thatchers.  The  coarse  mixture  of  grass, 
straw,  and  clay  applied  to  the  inner  and  outer 
walls,  and  so  universally  used,  should  have  given 
rise  to  a  Dauber  family  who  might  well  have 
run  the  Thatchers  close  in  point  of  numbers. 
To  "daub"  Salem  meeting  house  cost  the  sum 
of  17s  lod  in  1638. 

In  Salem  we  find  the  same  conditions  of  peril, 
fear,  and  crude  defence,  which  confronted  the 
settlers  throughout  the  New  World;  but  the  people 
not  only  sentinelled  their  church  for  temporal 
safety,  but  patrolled  the  town  to  impress  its 
citizens  into  the  spiritual  Kingdom. 

It  was  customary  during  the  infant  history  of 
this  church  that  two  should  be  appointed  each 
Sunday  to  go  into  the  town  to  reconnoitre  and 
make  note  of  those  found  lying  about  the  meeting 
house  or  "at  home"  or  "in  the  fields"  unable  to 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  243 

give  a  good  account  of  themselves ;  unable  to  tell 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  investigators  why  they 
were  not  at  church.  This  constabulary  was  after- 
ward required  to  take  the  names  of  such  delin- 
quents and  give  them  over  to  the  magistrate  who 
was  to  proceed  against  them.  In  turn  the  con- 
stables were  under  the  sharp  surveillance  of  the 
selectmen  who  travelled  with  them,  compelling 
them  to  do  their  duty.  The  doors  of  the  meet- 
ing house  were  guarded,  none  could  get  out  until 
the  services  were  done,  and  all  the  boys  were 
compelled  to  sit  on  the  stairs.  There  were 
three  pairs  besides  the  pulpit  steps,  which 
always  received  the  worst  of  the  lads  since  there 
the  congregational  eye  could  best  be  focussed 
on  them.  In  Salem  town  was  also  a  dog-whipper 
whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  dogs  out  of  the  meeting 
house.  Listen  to  this:  "  In  the  church  of  Salem, 
the  women,  in  times  of  service,  have  their  faces 
covered  with  a  veil."  Is  not  this  a  revelation  of 
a  persistent  gallantry  with  which  even  Puritan 
strictures  could  hardly  cope?    Also, 

"They  had  for  the  more  order  in  their  church, 
to  keep  people  from  sleeping,  a  man  that  wholly 
tended  with  a  short  clubbed  stick,  having  at  one 
end  a  knop  and  at  the  other  a  fox  tail,  with  which 
he  would  stroke  the  women's  faces,   that  were 


244  Old  New  England  Churches 

drowsy   with   sleep,    and   with   the   other   would 
knock  unruly  dogs,  and  men  that  were  asleep." 

This  with  much  else  was  printed  by  Thomas 
Maule  in  1695,  but  the  publication  was  suppressed 
by  order  of  the  General  Court. 

The  method  of  making  church  collections  estab- 
lished social  precedence.  The  magistrates  and  chief 
gentlemen  came  up  first  on  one  side,  deposited 
at  the  deacons'  seat  their  offerings — money,  papers 
or  other  chattels — and  then  passed  back  to  their 
seats  by  another  way. 

We  have  in  Salem  a  frightful  scene  of  darkness 
and  horror  which  conscience  does  not  permit  us 
to  pass  by  lightly.  It  cannot  be  dispassionately 
considered,  even  in  the  softening  light  of  spiritual 
zeal,  but  can  be  excused  only  and  contemplated 
with  anything  like  temperate  feeling  if  we  re- 
gard this  early  settlement  as  the  camping  ground 
of  those  whose  original  and  sanctified  purposes 
had  so  far  got  the  upper  hand  as  to  make  them 
a  mad  community. 

That  so  liberal  a  mind  as  that  of  Roger  Williams 
should  have  touched  at  any  point  those  mad 
souls  of  Salem,  seems  a  peculiar  irony  of  fate, 
and  one  cannot  but  wonder  if  it  was  the  tre- 
mendous reactionary  effect  of  that  incongruous 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  245 

association  of  Williams  and  Salem  which  was  the 
occasion  of  New  England's  development  a  hundred 
years  ahead  of  herself. 

Salem  intolerance  gave  birth  to  a  liberalism 
which  was  to  lead  to  the  premature  glory  of  New 
England,  because  Williams  was  to  found  a  state 
upon  the  basis  of  civil  and  religious  freedom. 

A  frightful  tragedy  was  connected  with  this 
First  Church  of  Salem:  the  Rev.  Hugh  Peters, 
one  of  its  earliest  ministers,  met  a  brutal  death  in 
England  some  years  later.  When  he  first  returned 
to  that  country  he  said,  in  a  sermon  which  he 
preached  before  both  houses  of  Parliament,  "  I  have 
lived  in  a  country  where,  in  seven  years  I  never 
saw  a  beggar,  nor  heard  an  oath,  nor  looked  upon 
a  drunkard."  Thus  did  he  reflect  the  social 
and  economic  conditions  of  our  country  in  1645. 
It  was  this  man's  magnificent  service  among  the 
Puritans  which  made  him  a  subject  of  royal  in- 
vective, and  upon  the  restoration  of  Charles  II 
he  was  condemned  to  death.  He  charged  his 
homeless,  unhappy  daughter  to  return  to  New  En- 
gland if  possible,  and  to  "go  in  good  company  and 
trust  God  there;  the  church  are  a  tender  company." 

In  the  course  of  time  came  the  Rev.  Nicholas 
Noyes  who  took  so  startling  a  part  in  the  history 


246  Old  New  England  Churches 

of  witchcraft.  With  this  man  as  leader,  Salem 
had  forced  upon  her  a  horrible  moment  in  history. 
The  grotesque  and  fearful  doings  of  that  time  were 
better  left  without  further  discussion.  The  details 
have  been  given  to  us  complete  from  time  to  time 
by  many  writers;  but  those  conditions  should  be 
given  no  more  than  a  chronological  place  in  any 
history  of  to-day. 

Benjamin  Lynde's  wonderful  diary  tells  us 
that  on  January  27,  17 18: 

"  Mr.  Fisk  was  chosen  by  the  members  of  the 
first  parish  church  in  Salem  to  be  their  minister 
(by  their  usual  and  ancient  sign  of  holding  up  the 
right  hand)  which  was  also  entered  in  the  parish 
book.  N.  B.  This  choice  was  in  their  old  meet- 
ing house,  being  near  forty  of  the  members  present, 
voting  all  for  him,  nemine  contradicente." 

Thus  we  learn  that  the  "  com  vote,  "  taken  oy 
many  of  the  settlements,  was  not  a  parliamentary 
characteristic  of  Salem  procedure.  There  was 
majority  rule  in  the  town.  In  taking  the  vote 
it  was  "Ye  that  are  so  minded,  hold  up  your 
hands — ye  that  are  otherwise  minded,  hold  up 
your  hands." 

This  last  ministerial  choice  in  the  old  meeting 
house  seems  to  have  been  unsanctified,  because 
there  is  a  very  vivid  account  in  Benjamin  Lynde's 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  247 

diary,  written  at  least  eighteen  years  after,  of  an 
effort  to  placate  Mr.  Fisk.  The  entry  says  that 
on  July  22,  1736,  there  was 

"A  Private  Fast  on  the  part  of  the  aggrieved 
congregation  or  Society  meeting  in  the  old  House, 
humbly  to  seek  out  God  for  the  restoring  peace, 
and  healing  our  divisions  and  bringing  us  to  a 
good  settlement  under  a  godly  minister.  Mr. 
Chipman  began  in  prayer  by  putting  us  under 
examination  of  ourselves,  whether  we  have  not 
been  the  instrumental  cause  of  these  long  divisions 
and  several  harsh  pointed  heads,  without  the 
least  charging  Mr.  Fisk,  his  party,  only  that  God 
would  give  him  repentance  and  something  of  a 
reunion  of  his  adherence  with  us;   too  long." 

In  these  last  two  words  we  probably  have  a  con- 
census of  the  congregation's  opinion.  Lynde 
writes  further  of  Mr.  Fisk  taking  his  sermon 
from 

"3d  Jeremiah,  17,  wherein  he  ran  very  high  in, 
and  for,  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of  ministers, 
and  expostulated  with  the  present  Society,  and 
put  them  on  examination  whether  God's  anger 
might  not  be  on  account  of  their  remissness  and 
careless  receiving  the  communion  under  Mr. 
Fisk' s   administration. ' ' 

Mr  Fisk  must  have  very  completely  disrupted 
the  church  for  on  Monday  night;  the  second  of 
August  1736, 


248  Old  New  England  Churches 

"The  members  of  the  ist  church  of  Salem,  viz.; 
the  aggrieved  brethren,  to  the  number  of  2 1 ,  met 
at  Timothy  Lindall's,  Esq.,  his  house,  to  recognise 
and  renew  the  original  covenant  of  said  church, 
from  which  Mr.  Fisk,  our  late  pastor,  has  gone 
off,  and  carried  away  a  number  with  him,  to  the 
denying  this  ancient  church's  principles." 

Thus  Salemites  lived  more  or  less  impatiently 
under  the  burden  of  their  own  mistake  for  nearly 
eighteen  years. 

It  is  only  in  the  history  of  this  town  that  we 
have  anything  like  a  complete  account  of  the 
burial  customs  of  New  England,  which  were,  ap- 
parently, more  comfortable  than  the  customs  of 
the  living.  The  price  of  digging  a  grave  in  Salem 
was  eight  shillings,  except  in  winter,  when  it  was 
more.  In  1691  such  services,  including  the  "ring- 
ing the  bell  for  a  man  or  a  woman"  were  3s. 
The  chimney  of  the  meeting  house  was  the  place 
in  which  the  coffin  rested,  and  it  was  forbidden 
"  to  run  or  go  before  or  abreast  with  the  corpse 
or  relations."  If  it  was  a  man  who  had  died,  the 
coffin  was  immediately  followed  by  men;  if  the 
deceased  was  a  woman,  then  the  coffin  was  fol- 
lowed by  women.  When  one  dead  of  smallpox 
was  to  be  buried,  the  constable  walked  before  to 
give  notice  of  the  danger  of  infection,  and  such  bur- 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  249 

ials  took  place  arbitrarily  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  There  was  a  law  passed  in  1737  that 
no  funeral  should  be  held  on  the  Sabbath.  This 
law  was  for  a  long  time  in  operation.  Until  1742 
it  was  the  custom  to  furnish  large  quantities  of 
wine  and  cider,  sugar  and  spices,  at  the  funerals 
even  of  paupers,  but  this  was  temporarily 
prohibited  in  1748.  There  is  a  clause  in 
Thomas  Barton's  will,  however,  written  in 
1 75 1,  which  speaks  of  such  pomps  for  the 
dead  as  were  mostly  quite  foreign  to  the 
living.  By  the  same  document  he  leaves  to  his 
wife  "  all  my  gold  rings  had  at  funerals  save  what 
may  be  made  use  of  at  my  own  funeral."  What 
a  revelation  this  is  of  certain  forms  of  vanity  in 
those  times!  Later  on  there  was  much  resent- 
ment toward  any  sort  of  mourning  apparel  which 
came  from  England,  because  the  colonists  feared 
it  would  encourage  England  in  her  system  of 
colonial  taxation.  Apropos  of  burial  customs, 
a  desolate  and  fearful  suggestion  is  to  be  found 
in  certain  records.  It  was  necessary  in  those  days 
to  seek  some  place  for  the  dead  more  or  less  in- 
accessible to  wolves,  because  they  were  "  troublous 
aggressors  on  such  enclosures." 
Salem  was  the  scene  of  much  accident  and  vio- 


250  Old  New  England  Churches 

lence  in  its  early  days.  The  careless  discharge  of 
guns,  drownings,  and  avalanches  of  snow  occa- 
sioned many  casualties.  Mr.  Skelton's  servant 
came  near  adding  to  the  list  of  tragedies,  for  "  she 
was  so  frozen  in  the  snow  one  morning  as  she  was 
one  hour  before  she  could  get  up; — yet  she  soon 
recovered." 

Woe  to  him  who  was  not  in  accord  with  Salem 
church.  It  was  "  for  hard  speeches  against  Salem 
church"  that  "Philip  Ratclif  was  sentenced  to 
pay  forty  pounds  fine,  to  be  whipped  and  have 
his  ears  clipped  and  to  be  banished."  Men  re- 
ceived God  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  as  it  were. 
One  man  was  cut  off  from  the  church  for  neglect- 
ing to  have  his  child  baptised.  But  the  zeal  of 
the  preachers  so  far  outstripped  the  endurance 
of  the  parishioners,  it  became  necessary  to  de- 
clare that  every  "worshipping  assembly  should 
close  in  time  to  reach  home  before  dark." 

There  was  much  opposition  to  the  fanaticism 
which  amounted  to  madness  in  Salem,  and  the 
intolerance  of  the  church  caused  many  to  go  away. 
Lady  Deborah  Moody  left  the  town  and  moved 
to  Long  Island  because  she  was  "admonished 
here  for  denying  infant  baptism."  Men  and 
women  were  arraigned  for  absence  from  worship, 


First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  251 

and  people  were  even  imprisoned  for  entertaining 
those  who  were  antagonistic  to  the  church.  All 
those  who  resisted  these  frightful  severities, 
needed  to  the  full  the  courage  of  their  con- 
victions, and  they  seem  to  have  had  it.  Though 
stripped,  whipped,  and  tied  to  a  cart's  tail,  they 
returned  to  their  own  houses  still  to  protest,  still 
to  maintain  as  much  as  they  could  of  their  rights 
as  human  beings  rather  than  as  church  vassals. 

The  dissenters  from  Mr.  Fisk's  ministry  were 
indeed  tenacious  of  their  purpose  and  principles, 
but  the  parson  was  no  less  so,  and  for  a  very  long 
time  his  spirit  appears  to  have  made  up  for  the 
discrepancy  in  numbers  upon  his  side.  Finally,  his 
enemies  definitely  determined  to  exclude  him  from 
the  meeting  house  and  to  hire  another  preacher. 
Samuel  Mather  was  spoken  of  as  Fisk's  suc- 
cessor, and  those  of  the  church  who  were  against 
Mr.  Fisk  assembled  to  discuss  the  matter.  Some- 
one was  appointed  to  prevent  the  preacher  getting 
into  his  pulpit;  but  his  friends  were  there  also, 
and  a  hand-to-hand  encounter  took  place.  He 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mather  attempted  to  exhort 
and  pray  each  other  down,  but  Mr.  Mather  and 
his  adherents,  being  able  to  make  more  noise 
than  Mr.  Fisk  and  his  adherents,  got  the  best  of 


252  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  battle  and  Mr.  Fisk  withdrew,  taking  part  of 
the  audience  with  him.  The  afternoon  witnessed 
a  repetition  of  the  quarrel  and  the  uproar  became 
so  great  that  Mr.  Fisk  could  not  make  himself 
heard,  and  had  to  withdraw  again.  His  adherents 
followed.  Later  he  found  favour  in  Boston 
where  a  convention  of  ministers  undertook  to  up- 
hold him.  This  was  made  an  occasion  for  legis- 
lative action  and  a  good  many  ministers  fell  under 
censure  at  the  time;  but  Mr.  Fisk's  followers 
raised  a  meeting  house  for  him,  though  the 
workmen  were  ordered  by  the  Government  to 
stop. 

His  meeting  house  was  raised  only  three  perches 
and  eleven  feet  from  the  parish  meeting  house 
where  his  enemies  congregated,  and  the  worst 
that  Salem  could  do  was  to  order  that  his  building 
be  moved  forty  perches  from  the  original  meeting 
house. 

Salem    was    an    ideal    field    for    Whitefield's 

emotional   and  exciting   methods,  and   when  he 

came  there,  according  to  his  journal,  he 

"Preached  to  about  2,000.  Here  the  Lord 
manifested  his  glory.  In  every  part  of  the  con- 
gregation persons  might  be  seen  under  concern. 
Mr.  C — ^k  (Clark),  a  good  minister,  seemed  to  be 
almost  in  Heaven." 


•  First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Mass.  253 

The  church  was  the  scene  of  more  riot  on  the 
occasion  of  Mr.  Leavit's  ordination.  Again  the 
Fisk  imbroglio  was  the  immediate  cause  of  this. 
The  sheriff  was  ordered  to  take  Mr.  Leavit  from 
the  pulpit;  whereupon  that  officer  threw  a  hat  in 
the  preacher's  face  and  drove  him  out;  Mr.  Leavit 
and  his  followers  being  forced  to  retire  to 
"Kitchen's  Orchard"  where  the  preacher  was 
ordained  under  a  tree.  At  last  the  dissensions 
in  Salem  church  became  so  great,  its  intolerance 
so  shameful,  that  it  seemed  likely  to  become  a 
pariah  among  churches,  and  the  First  Church  of 
Gloucester  passed  the  sentence  of  non-communion 
upon  it.  This  "was  done  deliberately  and  with 
a  great  deal  of  awfulness  and  solemnity." 

But  "  awfulness  and  solemnity "  were  a  fitting 
climax  to  so  black  a  record  as  Salem's  was  at  that 
time. 


LONGMEADOW  CHURCH,  LONG- 
MEADOW,  MASS. 


CHAPTER  XV 

LONGMEADOW      ChURCH,      LoNGMEADOW,      MASSA- 
CHUSETTS 

ALONG  meadow  on  the  Connecticut  River 
just  north  of  the  state  Hne  suggested  the 
name  for  this  town,  or  possibly,  having  the 
name  in  mind,  the  people  who  settled  there 
sought  for  a  long  meadow  in  their  leaning  toward 
virite  and  similitude.  At  any  rate  the  name  of 
the  town  is  Longmeadow,  and  the  lay  of  the  land 
makes  it  appropriate. 

Freshets  came  and  settlers  went,  as  a  conse- 
quence, to  higher  ground  until  at  last  they  found 
themselves  a  mile  east  of  the  river,  some  distance 
from  their  original  camping  ground,  but  they 
still  retained  the  name  Longmeadow  for  the 
settlement.  No  longer  menaced  by  the  river, 
they  built  a  meeting  house  in  17 14.  It  was  the 
usual  kind — ^logs,  thatch  and  clay — and  it  served 
them  for  fifty  years.  At  the  end  of  the  half  cen- 
tury they  were  ready  to  build  a  new  house  aided 
by  bequests.  The  new  building  had  been  put  up 
nearly  on  the  site  of  the  old,  but  the  legacies  left 

257 


258  Old  New  England  Churches 

were  contingent  upon  the  erection  of  a  new  church 
nearer  to  the  people  or  the  removal  of  the  old 
structure  in  that  direction.  The  latter  was  done, 
the  old  house  being  remodelled. 

There   is   much   romance   connected   with   this 
Longmeadow  church  centred  round  its  preacher 
Stephen  Williams.     At  ten  years  of  age  he  with  his 
family  were  taken  captive  by  the  Indians  at  the 
time   of   the   Deerfield   massacre,   and  carried  to 
Canada.      Eunice,  his  sister,  after  the  recapture 
and  redemption  of  her  family  still  remained  among 
the  Indians  and  married  one  of  them.    From  Eunice 
Williams's  line  came  the  "Bourbon  Prince."     All 
favourable  evidence  received  with  the  utmost  cred- 
ulity cannot  point  to  a  king  of   France   as  this 
boy's  father.     Nothing  is  more  convincing  of  the 
unromantic    fact   that  the  priest   who  afterward 
found  himself  very  near  to  a  throne  was  an  Indian 
and  not  a  Bourbon,  than  his  picture.     A  compari- 
son of  the  photograph  of  the  Dauphin  of  France 
with  that  of  the  Rev.  Eleazer  Williams  is  accepted 
as  evidence  of  his  royal  parentage  by  those  who 
believe  in  that  story.     Different  people  see  things 
in  different  ways.     Mary  C.  Crawford  has  told  the 
picturesque  side  of  this  story  and  told  it  well,  but 
even  so,  we  cannot  believe  the  beady-eyed  priest 


FIRST  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  LONGMEADOW,  MASSACHUSETTS 
Whose  meeting  house  pulpits  were  occupied  by  the  "Bourbon  Prince,"  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Storrs,  and  the  Rev.  John  Peter 

Harding — famous  preachers  of  famous  times 


Longmeadow  Church,  Longmeadow,  Mass.     259 

to  be  a  Bourbon  simply  because  we  should  like 
to  do  so,  as  a  fine  finish  to  a  fine  story.  Doubtless 
there  was  a  discrepancy  about  the  birth  of  Rev. 
Eleazer  Williams  but  that  doesn't  necessarily  make 
him  the  Dauphin  of  France.  Longmeadow  does 
not  accept  the  Bourbon  story,  but  a  man  need 
not  be  even  a  king  in  order  to  be  no  prophet  in 
his  own  country.  The  story  will  bear  another 
century  of  investigation  before  it  is  definitely  re- 
jected, certainly  before  it  is  definitely  received. 

The  preacher,  Stephen  Williams,  showed  more 
than  ordinary  acumen  in  getting  proper  terms 
from  the  parish  to  which  he  was  called  before  he 
went  to  Longmeadow,  and  he  began  his  ministry 
there  under  exceptionally  favourable  circum- 
stances. One  of  the  Longmeadow  preachers  was 
the  Rev.  S.  R.  Storrs,  Jr.,  father  of  the  famous 
preacher  in  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  in  Brooklyn. 
The  latter  was  the  third  of  a  preacher  family  who 
seems  to  have  excelled  in  many  ways.  Edward  O. 
Wolcott,  aUnited  States  senator  from  Colorado,  was 
bom  in  the  Longmeadow  parsonage.  Forty-two 
years  of  service  in  the  church  made  the  Rev. 
John  Wheeler  Harding  known  as  the  "Archbishop 
of  Longmeadow." 

The  present  pastor  of  the  Longmeadow  church 


26o  Old  New  England  Churches 

has  given  us  a  very  good  idea  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Storrs,  who  succeeded  Williams  and  long  preceded 
the  great  Brooklyn  divine: 

"The  favourite  chaplain  on  the  muster  field, 
well  mounted,  with  shining  Blucher  boots  and 
cocked  hat,  he  delighted  in  the  hearty  welcome 
of  his  fellow  soldiers.  While  more  elegant,  he 
was  not  the  equal  of  his  predecessor  in  patience 
and  equanimity.  It  ruffled  him  greatly  to  have 
the  bell  stop  tolling  when  he  was  but  half  way 
across  the  green.  Once  with  all  sincerity  and 
solemnity  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon.  Hav- 
ing relieved  his  feelings,  he  continued  a  score  of 
years  longer  in  the  same  pulpit.  He  rode  home 
from  the  First  Church  in  Springfield  without 
preaching  the  lecture  because  the  parish  author- 
ities had  failed  of  their  repeated  promise  to  cut 
down  an  apple  tree  behind  the  pulpit  window 
which  had  too  often  obscured  his  vision.  He 
magnified  the  divine  sovereignty,  and  was  per- 
tinacious on  the  decrees.  An  arrangement  having 
been  made  with  Dr.  Howard  of  Springfield  for  an 
exchange,  they  met  halfway  on  horseback.  Said 
Storrs,  'Brother  Howard,  you  see  how  it  was 
ordained  from  all  eternity  that  you  should  preach 
my  lecture.'  Said  Howard,  'I  don't  see  it!  and 
if  it  was  so  decreed,  I'll  break  it!'  The  good 
brethren  got  warm;  each  turned  his  horse  for 
home;  but  Dr.  Storrs  fired  the  parting  shot:  *If 
you  won't  preach  my  lecture,  that  was  decreed.'  " 

This  church  had  a  Paul  Revere  bell  but  it  lasted 
only  five  years.     The  Longmeadow  people  were 


Longmeadow  Church,  Longmeadow,  Mass.     261 

so  unroariously  happy  over  the  ending  of  the  War 
that  they  rang  their  bell  till  they  cracked 
it.  Paul  Revere  recast  it  and  it  rang  on.  Long- 
meadow's  men  tramped  a  hundred  miles  to  Boston 
to  get  into  the  Revolutionary  War  without  delay. 
Nevertheless,  the  Revolution  brought  to  Long- 
meadow parish,  as  to  other  parishes,  some  differ- 
ences between  pastor  and  people.  Dr.  Williams 
was  a  royalist. 

"  Perhaps  it  was  the  conservatism  of  old  age, 
perhaps  it  was  the  fearfulness  of  age  that  the 
efforts  of  the  colonists  would  be  in  vain.  All  his 
life  Dr.  Williams  had  been  loyal  to  the  King, 
and  he  did  not  propose  at  the  age  of  eighty-two 
to  leave  off  praying  for  him.  In  those  days  the 
congregation  stood  for  prayer,  the  hinged  pew 
seats  turning  up  to  give  more  standing  room. 
Having  endured  prayers  for  the  royal  family  as 
long  as  they  could,  the  patriotic  but  discourteous 
parishioners  signified  their  indignant  protests  by 
slamming  the  pew  seats  and  sitting  down.  Nor 
was  it  any  better  after  Independence  was  declared. 
The  pastor  wrote  in  his  diary,  under  date  of 
August  II,  1776:  'This  day  I  read  publickly, 
being  required  thereto  by  the  Provincial  Council, 
the  Declaration  of  the  Continental  Congress  for 
Independency.'  " 

Longmeadow  stands  preeminent  as  a  maker  of 
several  kinds  of  romance.      In  the   cemetery  of 


262  Old  New  England  Churches 

this  First  Church  of  Christ  is  buried  a  woman 
**who  postponed  her  funeral  by  rising  from  her 
coffin.  Later  she  married  and  became  the  mother 
of  seventeen  children.  Her  epitaph  ought  to  be 
'The  last  state  of  that  woman  is  worse  than  the 
first.'  " 

There  is  a  gentle  and  unique  custom  of  Long- 
meadow  church  which  has  prevailed  for  a  genera- 
tion or  more : 

"  After  the  Children's  Day  services  in  the  church 
the  long  procession  marches  down  the  central 
walk  of  this  beautiful  'God's  acre,'  the  Sunday 
school  children  leading,  laden  with  flowers,  with 
which  they  strew  the  graves  of  all  who  in  the  last 
twelve-month  have  been  laid  to  rest.  With  a 
history  as  long  as  its  street,  with  sympathies  as 
broad,  and  with  a  constitution  as  sturdy  as  its 
ranks  of  elms,  the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  Long- 
meadow  has  for  one  hundred  and  ninety  years 
maintained  alone  the  Protestant  worship  of  the 
community,  happily  incorporating  into  its  mem- 
bership those  of  many  other  communities  who 
have  found  a  home  in  the  old  town." 


FIRST  CHURCH,  NEWPORT,  R.  I. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
First  Church,  Newport,  Rhode  Island 

NEWPORT  adopted  the  Connecticut    habit 
of  beginning  the  Sabbath  at  sunset    on 
Saturday  and  ending  it  at  Sunday's  sunset. 

One  pecuUar  custom  on  Sabbath  days  was  the 
meeting  of  heads  of  famihes,  on  the  grass  plot  in 
front  of  the  church  where  a  kind  of  gossiping  con- 
vention was  held  until  after  the  first  prayer  was 
finished ;  then  the  men  entered  the  church  boldly, 
unconscious  of  creating  any  disturbance,  and  took 
their  places.  This  continued  for  a  long  time, 
until  one  cheerful  Sunday  morning  when  t  hey  met 
as  usual  to  discuss  the  crops  and  what-not,  the 
Hon.  William  Elery  came  into  the  yard  and  re- 
marked blandly,  "  Gentlemen,  I  perceive  that  you 
do  not  like  short  prayers."  "Oh,  yes,"  they 
responded,  "we  prefer  such." 

"  Well,"  the  old  man  remarked,  "  I  cannot  under- 
stand how  that  can  be  when  you  never  come  in  in 
time  to  hear  one." 

This  put  an  end  to  the  Sunday  morning  con- 
vention in  the  churchyard. 

26s 


266  Old  New  England  Churches 

In  the  Second  Congregational  Church  of  New- 
port the  Rev.  Dr.  Channing  preached.  He  was 
a  timorous  man,  full  of  physical  fears,  and  it  is 
related  that  when  he  was  called  out  in  the  night 
to  attend  the  dying,  or  those  who  otherwise  had 
need  of  him,  he  always  besought  some  one  to  go 
with  him.  There  are  many  delightful  anecdotes 
told  of  him  in  "Early  Recollections  of  New- 
port," by  George  C.  Mason,  who  was  most 
frequently  his  conductor  on  those  night  excursions. 
At  one  time  Channing  was  called  out  to  baptise  a 
parishioner's  infant  child,  thought  to  be  dying 
of  scarlet  fever.  The  reverend  doctor  remem- 
bered that  another  parishioner  had  a  remedy 
for  this  frightful  disease  and  with  the  loving 
hope  that  he  might  be  able  to  save  the  child 
he  aroused  the  house  of  his  neighbour  at  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  After  much  entreat}^ 
the  old  lady  whose  assistance  he  sought, 
consented  to  call  the  formula  out  to  him 
from  the  window.  Channing  hurried  away  but 
arrived  only  to  find  the  child  dying  and  that  he 
must  hasten  the  rites  of  baptism. 

He  was  called  up  for  all  sorts  of  things — on  one 
occasion  to  calm  the  tremors  of  a  young  wife 
whose  husband  had  dined  not  wisely  but  too  well 


First  Church,  Newport,  R.  I.  267 

and  had  in  consequence  gone  to  bed  where  he 
dined,  leaving  his  wife  to  think  out  the  cause  of 
his  absence  as  best  she  might. 

The  church  goers  are  vividly  described  as 
"men  in  coats  of  many  colours,  small  clothes, 
knee-buckles,  silk- thread,  and  woollen  stocks,  shoes 
with  buckles  steel-plated,  hightop  boots,  cocked 
hats  and  wigs  of  every  sort  and  hue;  and  the 
women  in  huge  sharp-pointed  bonnets,  well  starched 
stomachers,  close  fitting  gowns,  white  belts,  and 
many  gold  beads,  hoop  earrings,  and  with  gloves 
manufactured  at  the  Point,  from  sheepskin  gener- 
ally coloured  blue." 

Newport  was  founded  by  an  outcast  people, 
suspected  and  distrusted.  Her  territory  was 
claimed  by  any  one  who  happened  to  covet  it. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  clergyman  who  went  with 
some  companions  to  visit  a  member  of  his  church 
who  lived  at  Lynn.  Coming  from  Newport,  he 
was  regarded  as  an  outlaw  and  the  beadles  of  the 
town  seized  him  while  he  was  preaching  at  his 
friend's  house.  The  Court  sentenced  him  to 
fine  and  imprisonment  but  he  was  given  the  alter- 
native of  a  severe  whipping. 

Mr.  Holmes,  one  of  the  two  who  accompanied 
the  Newport  preacher  to  Lynn,  was  offered  no 


268  Old  New  England  Churches 

alternative  in  the  shape  of  a  fine,  and  he  was 
whipped  so  severely  that  Governor  Jenckes  de- 
clared "  He  could  not  take  much  rest  except  by 
supporting  himself  upon  his  elbows  and  knees." 

Of  necessity  Rhode  Island  knew  nothing  but 
domestic  trade,  being  cut  off  from  all  commerce 
with  the  other  colonies.  This  compelled  her  to 
be  more  resourceful  than  she  might  otherwise 
have  been,  and  to-day  her  independence  may  be 
the  sign  and  symbol  of  the  difficulties  of  her  early 
condition.  She  did  her  own  fighting,  her  own 
praying,  and  achieved  her  own  success,  ha\ing 
the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  none  of  that 
inter-dependence  and  reciprocal  condition  known 
to  all  the  rest  of  New  England.  Therefore  her 
history  stands  the  mightiest  among  all  the  colonies. 

Rhode  Island  became  the  haven  of  Quakers, 
Jews,  and  of  nearly  everyone  else  who  was  under  the 
ban  of  Puritan  intolerance.  The  United  Colonies 
commissioners  hunted  the  Quakers  to  Rhode 
Island  and  demanded  that  she  practise  upon  them 
the  same  persecutions  that  they  met  with  else- 
where, but  the  dignity  of  the  law  in  the  Rhode 
Island  Legislature  was  not  to  be  despised: 

"  As  concerning  these  Quakers  (so  called)  which 
are  now  among  us,  we  have  no  law  by  which  to 


First  Church,  Newport,  R.  I.  269 

punish  any  for  only  declaring,  by  words,  their 
minds  and  understandings  concerning  the  things 
and  ways  of  God,  as  to  salvation  and  eternal 
condition." 

Rhode  Island  even  to-day  is,  in  point  of  self- 
reliance,  a  nation  within  a  nation.  Some  of  the 
Legislature's  replies  to  the  exigent  demands  made 
upon  it  by  other  colonies  are  of  the  rarest  in  point 
of  wisdom,  gentleness,  and  vigour,  and  the  papers 
of  state  are  unique  among  nations. 

Precedence  in  point  of  age  is  given  to  the  first 
Newport  church  over  the  Providence  church. 

When  the  second  meeting  house  was  built, 
William  Peckham  became  its  pastor.  He  was 
supported  by  weekly  contributions  and  there  is  a 
suggestion  in  the  records  that  these  were  levied 
according  to  the  scriptural  demand  of  one-tenth  of 
each  man's  substance.  Peter  Foulger,  the  maternal 
grandfather  of  "New  England's  most  wonderful 
son, ' '  Benjamin  Franklin,  went  out  from  this  church 
as  a  missionary  among  the  Indians.  He  became 
a  member  of  that  first  Baptist  church  in  Newport 
about  one  htindred  years  before  the  Revolution. 

In  1729,  Dean  Berkeley  wrote  a  letter  which 
to-day  gives  us  a  fairly  good  idea  of  the  social 
and  spiritual  situation  in  Newport  at  that  time. 


270  Old  New  England  Churches 

There  were  four  sorts  of  anabaptists,  there  were 
Presbyterians,  Quakers,  Independents,  and  "many 
of  no  profession  at  all,"  and  yet  we  find  less  dis- 
sension upon  matters  of  religion,  less  social  divi- 
sion, more  unanimity  in  governmental  affairs  than 
we  do  anywhere  else  in  New  England. 

Newport  had  a  population  of  about  six  thou- 
sand. The  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
settlement  of  the  island  was  celebrated  by  the 
erection  of  a  new  house  of  worship.  Whitefield, 
reasonably  enough,  was  not  welcomed  by  Rhode 
Island  folk.  It  would  have  been  strange  if  such 
an  emotional,  passionate  creature  had  been  re- 
ceived with  approval  by  these  people  of  calm, 
utilitarian  judgments. 

In  1773  the  meeting  house  was  greatly  enlarged, 
and  in  1778  the  King's  troops  entered  and  took 
possession. 

In  a  controversy  between  Providence  and  New- 
port as  to  which  could  properly  lay  claim  to  being 
the  first  Baptist  church  in  America  the  amusing 
statement  was  made  by  the  Rev.  S.  Adlam,  one 
of  the  Newport  preachers,  that  as  Roger  Williams 
was  only  four  months  a  Baptist  he  could  not 
in  any  sense  be  accredited  the  father  of  the 
Baptist  society   in  this  country;    and   in  other 


First  Church,  Newport ,  R,  I.  271 

unreflective  words  he  sought  to  shear  Williams 
of  his  glory.  Whether  Roger  Williams  did  or  did 
not  found  a  Baptist  church  in  America — whether 
he  ever  was  a  Baptist — ^has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  matter.  His  four  months'  experiment 
in  the  Baptist  doctrine  it  is  unnecessary  to  con- 
sider in  establishing  his  relation  to  the  Church. 
He  was  so  much  more  than  a  Baptist  that  he 
made  the  Baptist  Church  a  possibility  in  Rhode 
Island.  As  a  fearless  man  he  founded  a  state  and 
established  a  condition  which  made  the  Baptist, 
the  Quaker,  the  thinker  along  anj^  independent  line, 
possible  at  that  time  in  America.  If  Roger 
Williams  acknowledged  the  Baptist  Church,  even 
for  four  months  or  for  four  days,  the  Baptists 
should  appreciate  the  fact  that  so  able  and  so  good 
a  man  ever  gave  that  denomination  precedence. 
Notwithstanding  Newport's  early  treatment  of 
the  problem  we  have  distressing  accounts  of 
slave  barter.  The  deacons  in  the  church  dealt 
in  slaves  and  one  of  them  we  read  was  "  accus- 
tomed to  give  thanks"  each  first  Sunday  morn- 
ing after  the  safe  arrival  of  his  slave  ship.  He 
formulated  his  gratitude  by  thanking  God  "  that 
an  over-ruling  Providence  hath  been  pleased  to 
bring  to  this  land  of  freedom  another  cargo  of 


272  Old  New  England  Churches 

heathen  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  Gospel." 
It  is  in  Newport  annals  (a  letter)  that  we  are  told 
of  a  slave  woman  who,  on  the  voyage  from  Africa, 
developed  symptoms  of  smallpox,  whereupon  she 
was  thrown  overboard  and  drowned  in  order  that 
the  rest  on  board  should  not  have  the  disease 
communicated  to  them,  A  somewhat  more  stren- 
uous method  than  vaccination,  but  exceedingly 
efficacious.  In  Newport,  as  in  all  the  other 
colonies,  rum  stood  not  only  next  to  the  law  and 
the  Gospel  but  frequently  beside  it.  We  read 
that  once  a  year  farmers  drove  into  Newport 
with  their  products  and  took  in  exchange  first  of 
all  rum,  next  tobacco  and  salt  codfish.  If  they 
had  any  room  left  on  their  sledges  and  any  money 
in  their  pockets  there  was  a  little  tea  and  coffee 
added  as  an  excessive  indulgence  to  the  women 
folk. 

The  first  house  of  worship  at  Newport  was  at 
Greensend  and  its  first  preacher  was  Dr.  John 
Clark. 

Dr.  Adlam  says: 

"Among  the  evils  that  have  resulted  from  the 
wrong  date  of  the  Providence  church  has  been 
the  prominence  given  to  Roger  Williams.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted  that  it  has  ever  entered 


First  Church,  Newport,  R.  I.  273 

into  the  minds  of  anyone  to  make  him,  in  America, 
the  founder  of  our  denomination ;  in  no  sense  was 
he  such;  well  would  it  be  for  Baptists  and  for 
Williams  himself  if  his  short  and  fitful  attempt 
to  become  a  Baptist  be  obliterated  from  the  minds 
of  men." 

This  suggests  that  however  capable  a  chronolog- 
ical historian  Dr.  Adlam  may  be,  he  is  hardly 
to  be  trusted  to  think  unaided. 

In  those  days  a  bellman  was  employed  to  walk 
the  streets,  and  his  term  of  office  was  for  a  year 
"  as  the  town  shall  agree,  "  which  may  have  meant 
"for  life  or  good  behaviour."  His  duty  was  to 
ring  the  bell  upon  the  occasion  of  any  extraor- 
dinary excitement  in  the  town,  such  as  the  im- 
portation of  fruit  or  fish,  and  in  his  instructions 
we  find  "  he  shall  not  need  to  stop  at  each  place, 
but  going  along  give  notice  thereof  by  a  latcd 
noise.'' 

The  town  seal  bore  the  device  of  a  sheep.  It 
was  Peter  Easton  and  John  Clark's  executors 
who  were  commissioned  to  lay  out  the  first  burial 
ground.  Early  in  Newport  history  Benedict 
Arnold  moved  to  the  town,  and  at  once  he  be- 
came a  proprietor.  A  year  later  he  was  made 
commissioner  and  presently  president  of  the  colony. 
This  name  Arnold,  latterly  so  infamous,  we  learn 
from  Newport  annals  had  its  place  among  thoe 
of  honest  fame. 


FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  PROVI- 
DENCE, R.  I. 


Photograph  by  E.  E.  SoderhoUz,  Boston 

SPIRE  OF  THE  OLD  NORTH,  OR  CHRIST  CHURCH, 

BOSTON 
From  which  the  lantern  was  hung  as  a  signal  to  Paul  Revere 


Photograph  by  E.  E.  SoderhoUz,  Boston 


SPIRE  OF  THE  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  PROVIDENCE, 
RHODE  ISLAND 


CHAPTER  XVII 

First  Baptist  Church,  Providence, 
Rhode  Island 

RELIGIOUS  beginnings  in  Roger  Williams's 
land  were  no  less  definite  than  in  the  other 
settlements,  but  the  movementcannotbe  geograph- 
ically located.  During  the  first  sixty-two  years  of 
Providence  history  there  was  no  church  structure, 
but  nearly  every  house  in  the  settlement  was  in 
its  turn  again  and  again  a  place  of  worship.  The 
Church  has  been  spoken  of  literally  as  "  the  church 
that  was  in  their  house."  In  clement  seasons  ser- 
vices were  held  in  the  open,  and  of  all  stories  of 
colonial  life  at  that  time,  that  of  Roger  Williams's 
land  is  the  most  pleasing. 

Long  after  the  settlement  of  the  town  we  know 
that  there  was  no  building  for  public  purposes, 
as  the  annual  town  meeting  was  held  "before 
Thomas  Field's  house,  under  a  tree,  by  the  water- 
side." The  meeting  house  arrived  in  1700,  and  is 
perhaps  the  only  instance  in  the  New  England 
colonies  of  being  the  donation  of  its  preacher. 
It  was  the  gift  of  the  Rev.  Pardon  Tillinghast  who 

377 


278 


Old  New  England  Churches 


was  most  generous  in  his  policy  and  who  for 
thirty-six  years  refused  a  salary  from  the  peo- 
ple ;  though  he  refused  a  salary  for  himself,  yet 
he  declared  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  townspeople 
to  support  the  preachers  who  should  come  after 
him. 

Tillinghast's  example  of  serving  for  love  of  his 
calling  and  humanity  is  not  at  all  exceptional; 
nor  is  the  action  of  the  townspeople  in  permitting 
him  so  to  serve,  for  we  read  of  curious  things  in 
the  way  of  self-denial  and  starvation  wages  of 
preachers  throughout  New  England.  The  condi- 
tion of  a  parson  was  well  nigh  hopeless  unless  he 
was  a  man  of  many  trades.  Agriculture  was 
almost  a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  spiritual  pro- 
fession. One  critically  fervent  deacon  was  heard 
to  remark,  "Wall,  our  minister  gives  so  much 
attention  to  his  farm  and  orchard  that  we  get 
pretty  poor  sermons,  but  he's  mighty  movin'  in 
prayer  in  caterpillar  and  cankerworm  time." 
When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Miles  prayed  God  to  send 
rain  that  would  come  "  drizzle-drozzle,  drizzle- 
drozzle  for  about  a  week"  we  may  assume  that 
he  was  not  without  agricultural  interests.  But 
if  the  preacher  got  no  salary  he  was  treated  with 
some   indulgence,  as  one  town's   records  show  by 


First  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.      279 

a  vote  "to  procure  Rales  anuf  to  Fence  the 
minnerstree  Fresh  meddo  the  Rev.  Noble  Evrit 
to  make  the  Fence  &  keep  it  in  Repare."  There 
must  be  some  privilege  implied  in  this,  if  one 
could  make  the  orthographic  connection. 

The  same  historian  assures  us  that  the  preacher 
was  permitted  to  act  as  street  cleaner  if  he  found 
himself  short  of  funds  and  fuel;  and  it  is  certain 
that  more  than  one  New  England  parson  made 
ends  meet  by  sweeping  the  meeting  house  for  the 
hire  of  three  dollars  per  year — or  less.  These 
three  dollars  must  have  been  disbursed  far  apart 
to  make  ends  meet,  or  else  the  legitimate  salary 
as  preacher  was  unprecedentedly  liberal.  The 
same  preacher  had  to  "winge"  or  rub  down  the 
principal  seats  the  day  after  he  swept,  and  he  had 
several  other  occupations,  but  these  domestic 
ones  are  unique.  The  parson  who  could  collect 
his  salary  had  to  be  ingenious  indeed.  With  all 
these  conspicuous  examples  of  parsimony  on  the 
part  of  the  Pilgrims  and  of  abject  poverty  on  the 
part  of  their  preachers,  it  is  refreshing  to  hear  of 
one  so  prosperous  that  he  was  able  to  make  the 
gift  of  a  meeting  house  to  his  people. 

The  house  was  no  larger  than  the  cabin  in 
which  Roger  Williams  began  to  preach  when  he 


28o  Old  New  England  Churches 

went  to  Salem,  and  it  was  used  for  twenty-six 
years.  We  have  only  a  tradition  that  it  was 
built  "  in  the  shape  of  a  haycock,  with  a  fire  place 
in  the  middle,  the  smoke  escaping  from  a  hole  in 
the  roof." 

One  of  the  great  men  of  those  early  Providence 
days  was  the  Rev.  Chad  Brown  who,  with  his 
descendants  has  been  identified  with  most  of  the 
religious,  educational,  literary,  and  commercial 
interests  of  Providence.  When  the  time  came 
for  a  new  meeting  house  one  was  put  up  on  the 
old  site,  and  there  were  then  two  thousand  people 
in  this  original  Rhode  Island  settlement.  New 
churches  came,  notably  St.  John's  Episcopal 
church,  founded  by  the  noble  Huguenot,  Gabriel 
Bernon,  and  the  First  Congregational,  and 
here,  too,  the  miserably  persecuted  Quakers 
found  refuge,  put  up  their  house,  and  worshipped 
in  it  unmolested.  Competition  is  the  life  of 
other  things  than  trade,  and  the  competition 
in  meeting  houses  ran  high  in  Providence, 
an  evidence  of  a  flourishing  spirituality  if  church 
building  be  the  sign. 

The  second  meeting  house  of  the  Baptists  had 
a  fine  aisle  from  the  door  to  the  pulpit,  and  its 
plain  benches  gave  way  to  pews  on  either  side. 


Photograph  by  P.  H.  Caswell 
FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  SHOWING  PARSONAGE,  NEWPORT,  RHODE  ISLAND 


First  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.      281 

There  was  an  entrance  on  the  south  side  of  the 
building — doubtless  because  "at  high  tide  the 
water  flowed  nearly  up  to  the  west  end." 

The  names  Brown,  Winsor,  and  Burlingame 
became  identified  with  this  pulpit  during  the  fifty 
years  that  followed.  There  was  a  considerable 
time  of  passivity  then,  and  in  1770  the  Rhode 
Island  College,  an  enterprise  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  was  transferred  to  Providence  from  its 
mother  town  of  Warren.  The  college  infused 
new  life  into  the  community  and  brought  with  it 
that  liberality  which  belongs  to  culture  and 
scholarship.  The  "Great  Awakening"  came  to 
Providence,  as  to  the  other  colonies,  in  more  ways 
than  one,  but  not  entirely  through  Whitefield, 
With  the  fine  "University  Hall"  in  its  sight,  the 
parish  was  spurred  on  to  new  deeds  and  decided 
it  must  have  another  meeting  house,  more  ornate, 
more  in  keeping  with  the  development  of  the 
town.  The  Baptist  Society  received  its  charter 
at  that  time.  The  feeling  of  fraternity  existing 
between  this  society  and  the  college  was  very 
fine  and  inspiring;  a  splendid  advantage  to  both. 

In  negotiating  for  new  church  lots  an  Episco- 
palian was  called  in  to  act  as  middleman.  The 
lots  were  bought  and  acknowledgment  made  to 


282  Old  New  England  Churches 

William  Russel  for  his  excellent  services,  all  in  the 
space  of  two  days.  Two  weeks  after  the  first 
meeting  called  to  consider  this  new  enterprise,  a 
committee  was  sent  to  Boston  to  look  about, 
decide  upon  the  architectural  details  of  the  new 
house,  and  to  contract  for  the  timber  that  would 
be  needed.  But  the  committee  was  painfully 
particular,  and  its  chairman  finally  took  the  mat- 
ter into  his  own  hands  and  drew  up  the  plans 
himself. 

A  beautiful  generosity  of  purpose  made  the 
charter  of  that  Baptist  Society  unique.  In  an 
historical  discourse  the  Rev.  Henry  Melville  King 
has  said,  **  No  truer,  no  grander,  no  more  unanswer- 
able Magna  Charta  of  human  liberties  was  ever 
penned."  The  meeting  house,  which  had  been 
designed  with  so  much  care,  was  ready  for  the 
dedication  nine  months  after  its  beginning.  Nine 
days  after  the  dedication  the  steeple  was  put  up. 
Two  thousand  pounds  of  the  cost  of  this  meeting 
house  was  raised  by  a  state  lottery,  a  means  not 
unusual  at  that  time,  though  one  cannot  be 
entirely  certain  whether  it  was  interest  in  the 
prize  or  spiritual  zeal  which  assembled  so  much 
money  in  so  short  a  time. 

Perhaps  not  least  interesting,  possibly  amusing, 


First  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.      283 

detail,  was  the  tablet  which  ornamented  the 
church,  bearing  the  legend,  "Bmlt  for  the  worship 
of  God,  and  to  hold  commencements  in." 

The  congregation  grew  so  greatly  that  sixty 
pews  were  built  into  the  galleries.  Of  this  church 
Governor  Arnold  said: 

"A  building  far  surpassing  any  then  existing 
on  this  continent  for  the  worship  of  God;  and 
which  to-day  has  few  if  any  equals  and  no 
superior  in  any  points  of  architectural  elegance." 

A  clock  was  placed  in  the  spire  at  the  beginning, 
but  it  was  of  the  old-fashioned  sort  with  black 
dial  and  gilt  figures,  so  that  about  1873  Mr.  Henry 
C.  Packard  replaced  the  old  face  with  a  modem 
illuminated  dial.  The  bell  bore  an  interesting 
inscription: 

"  For  freedom  of  conscience  the  town  was  first  planted, 
Persuasion,  not  force,  was  used  by  the  people; 
This  church  is  the  eldest  and  has  not  recanted, 
Enjoying  and  granting  bell,  temple  and  steeple." 

Later  when  the  bell  cracked  and  was  recast 
it  lost  much  of  its  weight,  and  also  its  quaint 
inscription  acquiring  simply  an  historical  one. 
Again  it  cracked,  was  recast,  and  its  inscription 
was  changed.  It  recorded  Roger  Williams  as 
the  first  pastor,  and  stated  that  this  was  the  first 
Baptist  church  in  America — a  mistake.     A  crystal 


284  Old  New  England  Churches 

chandelier  was  given  to  the  church  by  the  daughter 
of  Nicholas  Brown,  to  be  lighted  for  the  first  time 
on  the  evening  of  her  marriage.  In  1822  stoves 
were  placed  in  the  house.  Before  that  time  the 
family  procession,  servants  following  in  the  rear 
with  foot-stoves,  was  a  part  of  the  Sunday  pagean- 
try. In  time  the  church  organ  came ;  but  singing 
Jiad  been  introduced  sixty  years  earlier,  despite 
the  objection  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Winsor  who 
resigned  his  pastorate  because  "singing  in  public 
worship  was  very  disgustful  to  him."  The 
church  became  strictly  modem  in  1850  when 
candles  and  oil  were  replaced  by  gas. 

Rhode  Island  church  rule  reflected  her  civil 
law,  and  there  is  no  story  of  oppression  found  in 
either  civil  or  ecclesiastical  records.  In  1784 
the  Legislature  enacted  that  no  person  bom  after 
the  first  day  of  March  that  year  should  be  held  as 
a  slave,  and  three  years  later  there  were  several 
penalties  attached  to  slave-trading  in  that  state. 
This  is  the  only  instance  of  the  slave-trade  having 
been  repudiated  in  New  England  simply  on 
humane  grounds.  The  concerted  action  of  New 
England  later  had  its  political  and  commercial 
aspects,  but  here  in  Roger  Williams's  land  the 
rights  of  human  beings  were  established  without 


First  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.      285 

respect  to  race,  colour,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude!  Massachusetts  alone  seems  to  have 
been  in  step  with  Rhode  Island  in  this  march  to 
Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity;  although  freedom 
was  anticipated  in  Connecticut  in  the  year  1784 
the  law  there  was  so  formed  that  slavery  must 
necessarily  exist  in  that  state  for  twenty-nine 
years  thereafter. 

The  New  Haven  Gazette  of  November  9,  1786, 
printed  the  following: 

"To  be  sold  at  public  vendue  on  Tuesday  the 
29th  of  November  inst.  at  the  dwelling  house  of 
Captain  Enos  Atwater,  of  Cheshire,  deceased,  a 
good  Negro  Wench,  about  twenty  years  old.  Also 
a  brass- wheel' d  clock,  a  weaver's  Loom  with 
tackle,  sundry  featherbeds  and  furniture  and  a 
variety  of  household  furniture  too  numerous  to 
mention." 

This  certainly  proves  that  in  1786  the  anti-slave 
law  was  not  in  force,  and  even  in  1797  an  adver- 
tisement in  the  "  Gazette  "  shows  it  to  have  been 
still  inactive  since  men  were  then  bought  and  sold. 

But  in  Rhode  Island  it  was  decided  that  the 
way  to  reform  was  to  reform,  and  its  anti-slavery 
law  became  a  fact  in  letter  and  in  spirit. 

Fashion  was  unhampered  in  this  church.  Men 
and  women  were  privileged  to  wear  what  they 


286  Old  New  England  Churches 

chose  at  a  time  when  Cotton  Mather  was  regulat- 
ing the  fashions  in  Boston  according  to  his  idea 
of  what  was  godly.  A  young  woman  of  Rhode 
Island  who  was  visiting  in  Boston  wrote  in  her 
diary  in  1676: 

"  I  cannot  help  laughing  at  the  periwig  of  Elder 
Jones  which  has  gone  awry.  The  periwig  has 
been  greatly  censured  as  encouraging  worldly 
fashions  not  suitable  to  the  wearing  of  a  minister 
of  the  gospel,  and  it  has  been  preached  about  by 
Mr.  Mather,  and  many  think  he  is  not  severe 
enough  in  the  matter,  but  rather  doth  find  excuse 
for  it  on  account  of  health." 

This  entry  is  evidence  of  two  things:  first,  that 
these  strictures  concerning  matters  of  personal 
privilege  were  strange  and  amusing  to  the  people 
of  Rhode  Island;  and,  second,  that  general 
education  in  Rhode  Island  was  far  in  advance  of 
general  education  in  the  other  colonies,  for  this 
letter  is  perfectly  well  spelled  and  coherently 
expressed,  though  written  at  a  time  when  in  the 
town  of  Northampton  (to  be  specific)  it  was  voted 
"not  to  be  at  any  expense  for  schooling  girls." 
New  England  maidens  were  not  supposed  to  be 
worth  educating,  and  in  one  locality  as  late  as 
1792  girls  were  only  permitted  in  the  town  schools 
between  May  and  October. 


First  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  L      287 


There  was  so  little  of  superstition  in  the  colony 
that  its  churches  furnish  no  romance  which  depends 
thereupon  for  its  picturesqueness,  and  but  little 
that  is  lurid.  This  colony  seems  to  have  been  the 
first  in  New  England  to  exist  in  the  spirit  of  the 
great  device  of  M.  Louis  Blanc's  banner:  Liberte, 
Egalite,  Fraternite.  Rhode  Island  rose  by  this, 
stood  by  it,  and  ever  since  has  lived  by  it.  All 
honor  to  Roger  Williams's  land! 


CENTRE  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN, 
CONN. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

THERE  came  out  of  England  in  1637  a  great 
man,  John  Davenport.  After  divers  misad- 
ventures in  his  efforts  to  found  a  settlement  in 
the  name  of  the  Church,  he  arrived  with  his  little 
band  of  disciples  at  Quillypiac — Queenapick — 
Quinnipiac — ^The  City  of  Elms — New  Haven. 

Under  a  spreading  oak  on  the  morning  of  April 
18,  1638,  John  Davenport  first  preached  to  the 
little  company  who  had  come  thither  to  make 
their  homes.  His  sermon  was  taken  from  the 
fourth  chapter  of  Matthew,  the  Temptation  in  the 
Wilderness.  He  "  insisted  upon  the  temptations 
of  the  will,  made  such  observations,  and  gave  such 
directions  and  exhortations  as  were  pertinent  to 
the  conditions  of  his  hearers."  At  night  he 
announced  that  he  had  "enjoyed  a  good  day.'' 
The  oak  tree  which  formed  the  initial  place  of 
worship  for  Qviinnipiac  grew  near  to  College 
Street,  "about  forty-five  feet  east."  To  follow 
the  history  of  this  consecrated  elm  further,  tradition 

has  it  that  two  generations  of  Beechers  hammered 

291 


292  Old  New  England  Churches 

upon  an  anvil  which  was  supported  by  a  section 
of  that  tree ;  the  horse-shoeing  shop  of  the  Beechers 
was  on  College  Street  near  to  the  place  where  the 
elm  stood. 

John  Davenport,  the  strong  and  gracious  spirit 
who  presided  over  this  small  body  of  people,  was 
known  to  the  Indians  as  the  "so-big-study-man"; 
and  this  could  have  been  no  misnomer  for  a  man 
who  left  more  than  a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
books  behind  him  at  a  time  when  such  literary 
investment  might  well  have  stood  for  a  Camegiean 
prodigality  in  literature. 

Primitive  as  were  the  conditions,  the  founders 
of  the  New  Haven  colony,  who  are  synonymous 
with  the  founders  of  Centre  Church,  lived  with  a 
relative  degree  of  magnificence.  Theophilus 
Eaton's  house  had  nineteen  fireplaces  within  it 
and  John  Davenport's  is  said  to  have  had  thirteen. 
Davenport  arrived  at  Quinnipiac  with  twin  deter- 
minations: to  found  a  settlement  which  should 
be  governed  by  the  Church,  and  to  establish  a 
great  nucleus  of  learning.  After  a  desperate 
season,  during  which  the  settlers  lived  in  cellars — 
the  only  part  of  their  homes  then  habitable — a 
season  of  alternate  hope  and  despair,  John  Daven- 
port, witnessing  no  ecclesiastic  or  civil  advance- 


AGO  .Via, 


K 


CENTRE  CHURCH.  NEW  HAVEN.  CONNECTICUT 

I  Hterr 


horhes  then 


•  ;••  •••••«•€ 

1  •••        .  •-•    .  V  •  •    • 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         293 

ment  in  the  colonial  organisation,  determined 
to  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  and  a  meeting  was 
called  in  Robert  Newman's  bam.  This  was  on 
June  4,  1639.  The  colony  had  been  composed  of 
Puritans  and  Separatists.  The  Separatists  were 
led  by  Samuel  Eaton  who  finally  merged  his  own 
authority  in  Davenport's  purpose  to  establish 
a  civil  government  which  should  be  in  all  things 
amenable  to  the  church.  The  minutes  of  that 
meeting  in  Robert  Newman's  bam  were  spread 
by  Newman.  Twelve  men  were  chosen  to 
select  in  turn  seven  who  were  to  organise  the 
church.  These  seven  were  Theophilus  Eaton, 
John  Davenport,  Robert  Newman,  Matthew  Gil- 
bert, Thomas  Fugill,  John  Punderson,  and  Jere- 
miah Dixon.  The  elective  franchise  was  limited 
to  church  members.  As  a  result  of  this  June  meet- 
ing, the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New  Haven  was 
established  on  the  22nd  of  August,   1639. 

The  ecclesiastical  administration  in  New  Haven 
was  to  be  the  antithesis  of  the  liberal  adminis- 
tration at  Plymouth.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Davenport  it  was  determined  to  confine  the 
administration  of  civil  government  to  churchmen. 
Thus  New  Haven  out-Puritaned  the  most  Puritan 
principle,  but  there  was  nevertheless  a  peculiar 


294  Old  New  England  Churches 

discrepancy  between  this  fanaticism  and  the 
liberalism  exercised  within  the  church  itself.  For 
example,  there  was  no  such  formula  as  a  con- 
fession of  faith  adopted  by  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  New  Haven.  The  seven  persons 
chosen  by  the  twelve  constituted  the  church  by 
"covenanting  together."  It  is  to  be  assumed 
that  the  seven  men  satisfied  one  another  that  their 
opinions  accorded,  but  a  formal  confession  of 
faith  was  waived.  While  liberal  within  their 
own  institution,  the  early  church  in  the  New 
Haven  Colony  was  rigid  in  its  application  to  state 
interests.  It  was  necessary  to  have  acknowledged 
Christianity  and  to  have  identified  one's  self  with 
the  church  before  a  citizen  could  be  accorded  the 
right  of  suffrage. 

The  first  meeting  house  of  Centre  Church  was 
used  for  the  sessions  of  the  General  Court  as  well 
as  for  ecclesiastical  purposes,  and  since  the  Court 
must  be  composed  of  church  members  the  religious 
sentiment  of  the  people  was  not  offended.  The 
early  colonists  were  utilitarian  above  all  things. 
Contributions  to  the  church  were  made  not  only 
in  money  but  in  many  chattels. 

The  running  out  of  the  sand  from  the  horn-  glass 
usually   determined   the   length   of   the   sermon, 


Centre  Churchy  New  Haven,  Conn.         295 

but  if  a  preacher,  drunk  with  his  own  eloquence, 
turned  the  glass,  thereby  signifying  that  he  meant 
to  speak  longer,  the  congregation  were  not  lost 
to  all  sense  of  their  privileges  as  human  beings  and 
were  likely  to  show  signs  of  disapproval. 

The  first  meeting  house,  built  in  1640,  was 
fifty  feet  square  and  the  frame  was  too  light  to 
support  the  weight  of  the  tower,  so  that  it  became 
necessary  to  shore  up  the  posts.  In  time  the 
shoring  decayed,  and  it  was  feared  the  meeting 
house  would  fall;  therefore  in  January,  1660  the 
town  became  divided  upon  the  point  of  repairs. 
Should  both  the  tower  and  turret  remain  and  the 
shores  be  renewed?  At  last  it  was  determined 
that  the  tower  and  turret  be  taken  down  and  the 
shores  renewed. 

The  customs  of  that  adventurous  congregation 
were  picturesquely  severe.  Men  were  compelled 
by  law  to  provide  themselves  with  six  charges  of 
powder  and  shot  when  they  came  to  the  meeting 
and  the  women  folks  were  carefully  instructed  as 
to  what  they  should  do  in  case  they  were  attacked 
by  savages  while  in  church.  In  New  Haven 
bullets  passed  as  currency,  valued  at  a  farthing 
each,  so  that  it  became  necessary  for  the  colonists 
to  go  weU  provided  with  ammunition,  if  not  with 


296  Old  New  England  Churches 

money.  It  was  ordered  that  farmers  should  not 
leave  "  more  arms  at  home  than  men  to  use  them  " 
and  they  were  to  have  "all  piercing  weapons 
furbished  up  and  dressed."  It  was  ordered  that 
the  "  tower  of  the  meeting  house  be  kept  free  from 
women  and  children  sitting  there,  that  if  there  be 
occasion  for  the  soldiers  to  go  suddenly  forth  they 
have  free  passage."  There  was  a  watch  in  the 
turret,  armed  men  paced  the  streets,  and  cannon 
were  mounted.     Thus  the  church  was  garrisoned. 

Sentinels  patrolled  in  front  of  the  church,  and  the 
monotony  of  three-hour  sermons  with  hour-long 
prayers  was  broken  more  than  once  by  disorders 
of  so  serious  a  sort  that  they  were  reported  at  the 
General  Court.  On  the  sixteenth  of  June,  1662, 
the  congregation  was  diverted  by  a  soldier  who 
sought  to  amuse  himself  by  throwing  lumps  of 
lime  at  the  army.  In  return  he  was  very  effi- 
ciently kicked  by  a  fellow  warrior.  It  is  recorded 
that  "Mrs.  Goodyear's  boy  had  his  head  broken 
that  day  in  meeting,  on  account  of  which  a  woman 
said  she  doubted  not  that  the  wrath  of  God  was 
upon  us."  But  on  the  whole  the  military  was 
kept  well  under  the  hand  of  the  church  and  drilled 
to  prayer  and  psalm  singing. 

The  New  Haven  soldiers  were  somewhat  differ- 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         297 

ently  accoutred  from  those  of  other  settlements. 
Instead  of  the  coats  "basted  with  cotton- wool" 
they  were  heavily  wadded  and  cushioned  like 
upholstery,  as  a  protection  against  Indian  arrows. 
This  must  have  added  greatly  to  the  gaiety  of 
nations  if  not  to  military  appearance,  but  in  the 
matter  of  warmth  doubtless  the  soldier  had  greatly 
the  advantage  of  the  civilian. 

We  know  that  the  congregation  assembled  to 
the  beat  of  drum  because  it  is  recorded  that,  in 
1647,  Robert  Basset  was  chosen  to  drum  "twice 
upon  Lordes  Dayes  and  Lecture  Dayes  upon  the 
meeting  house  that  soe  those  who  live  farr  off  may 
heare  the  more  distinkly."  Thus  it  became  the 
custom  of  the  New  Haven  colonists  to  come  from 
their  homes  upon  the  second  beat  of  the  drum 
which  sounded  from  the  meeting  house  tower, 
and  to  enter  the  church.  Basset,  the  drummer, 
behaved  in  a  most  dissolute  fashion  and  dis- 
honoured his  calling  by  getting  ten  men  very 
drunk  on  "six  quarts  of  strong  liquor."  It  is 
recorded  that  "the  miscarriage  continued  until 
betwixt  ten  and  eleven  of  the  clock  to  the  great 
provocation  of  God,  disturbance  of  the  peace,  and 
to  such  a  height  of  disorder  that  strangers  won- 
dered at  it."     As  a  consequence  of  that  unseemli- 


298  Old  New  England  Churches 

ness  Drummer  Basset  was  fined  five  pounds, 
whereupon  he  quitted  New  Haven. 

The  rigours  of  this  religion  were  as  severe  as  the 
rigours  of  the  New  England  winter.  The  man 
who  was  late  or  absent  from  the  service  was  fined, 
though  it  is  said  his  excuse  might  be  that  his 
clothes  were  wet  in  the  Saturday's  rain  and  he 
had  no  fire  to  dry  them  by.  The  children  who 
huddled  together  on  the  pulpit  stairs  during 
service  made  so  much  noise  that  action  was  taken 
to  prohibit  their  presence.  When  collection  time 
came,  wampiim,  fruit,  and  produce  of  all  sorts 
were  taken  to  the  deacons'  seat. 

The  men  and  women  sat  apart  from  each  other 
but  the  soldiers  were  evenly  divided,  one-half  of 
them  sitting  on  the  women's  side  and  the  other 
half  on  the  men's.  The  matter  of  apportioning 
seats  to  the  congregation  was  taken  up  at  a  General 
Court  on  the  tenth  of  March,  1647,  and  occasioned 
no  little  resentment  and  dissension.  Later,  in 
order  to  assuage  many  heart-burnings,  there  was 
made  "the  little  seat"  and  "the  seat  before  the 
little  seat"  by  which  not  only  the  last  became 
first  but  the  first  remained  first,  and  per- 
sons were  assigned  seats  in  front  of  every  front 
seat  in  the  meeting  house.     During  this  time  the 


Centre  Churchy  New  Haven,  Conn.         299 

Governor's  wife  became  a  cause  of  much  solicitude 
because  she  did  not  accept  Mr.  Davenport's  find- 
ing that  "Baptism  has  come  in  place  of  circum- 
cision, and  is  to  be  administered  to  infants."  Mr. 
Davenport  asserted  that  "with  a  blessing  from 
God  for  the  recovery  of  some  from  this  error  and 
the  establishment  of  others  in  truth,  only  Mrs. 
Eaton  (received)  no  benefit  at  all."  Indeed,  Mrs. 
Eaton's  conduct  became  so  remarkable  "as  to 
suggest  the  conjecture  that  she  was  either  insane 
or  in  that  state  of  nervous  excitement  that  borders 
on  insanity,  and  that  medical  treatment  would 
have  been  more  in  order  than  church  discipline." 
Thus,  the  Centre  Church  had  what  might  have 
been  called  its  domestic  as  well  as  its  official  trials. 
About  1662  the  alleys  of  the  meeting  house 
had  become  "  so  filled  with  blocks,  stools,  and 
chairs  that  it  hinders  a  free  passage,"  and  low 
benches  were  built  at  the  ends  of  the  seats  for 
young  people  to  sit  upon.  But  the  church  grew 
and  grew  until  about  a  year  later  the  selectmen 
were  "desired  to  speak  with  some  workmen  to 
see  if  another  little  gallery  may  not  for  a  small 
charge  be  made  around  that  [which]  is  already." 
About  the  same  time  it  was  ordered  "that  Sister 
Preston  shall  sweep  and  dress  the  meeting  house 


300  Old  New  England  Churches 

every  week,  and  shall  have  one  shilling  a  week 
for  her  pains." 

Here  in  Centre  Church  was  inaugurated  the 
custom  of  rising  and  remaining  standing  while 
the  text  was  being  read.  This  custom  was  ini- 
tiated one  Sunday  afternoon  after  Mr.  Davenport 
had  preached  a  sermon  in  the  morning  advising 
such  an  expression  of  reverence  for  God's  Word. 

Every  custom  in  that  New  Haven  church  was 
stem  and  rigorous,  yet  however  strong  the  spirit 
there  is  historic  evidence  that  the  flesh  was  weak: 

"  The  wampum  that  is  put  into  the  church  treasury 
is  generally  so  bad  that  the  elders  to  whom  they 
pay  it  cannot  pay  it  away." 

Indeed  the  abuse  became  so  flagrant  that  a  neces- 
sary order  was  issued  that  "  no  money  save  silver 
or  bills  "  be  put  into  the  contribution  box.  It  may 
be  well  to  mention  that  thereafter  contributions 
fell  off  surprisingly. 

Finally,  in  1670,  the  New  Haven  colony  outgrew 
its  first  church.  By  that  time  children's  children 
had  so  greatly  increased  the  population  and  the 
congregation  that  the  old  meeting  house  was  too 
small;  so  in  1669  the  town  declared  by  vote  for 
a  new  meeting  house  of  stone  and  brick.  Details 
as  to  dimensions,  the  amount  of  expenditure,  and 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven^  Conn.         301 

the  limit  of  time  for  the  debt  to  run  were  agreed 
upon,  but  about  three  weeks  later  complaint  was 
made  that  "the  committee  for  the  meeting  house 
informed  the  town  that  not  any  person  doth  yet 
appear  to  build  the  meeting  house."  Many 
months  later,  no  one  having  yet  appeared  to 
build  the  meeting  house,  it  was  decided  in  council 
to  enlarge  the  old  one,  but  the  architectural  resvilt 
was  not  admirable.  The  windows  in  the  new 
part  were  of  different  size  from  the  windows  in  the 
older  part,  and  the  new  lumber  cast  reflection 
upon  the  clapboards  of  the  old.  Like  the  woman 
who  bought  lace  curtains  and  had  to  refurnish  in 
order  to  live  up  to  them,  it  was  voted  "that  the 
old  meeting  house  be  new  boarded  and  that  the 
windows  in  the  old  house  be  enlarged  like  the 
windows  in  the  new  part  of  said  house."  It  may 
be  assumed  that  the  addition  to  the  meeting 
house  had  been  made  inharmonious  either  by  the 
architect  or  those  who  were  directing  him,  with 
malice  aforethought,  but  the  new  plans  were  to  be 
very  specific.  There  was  to  be  "a  door  in  the 
house  where  George  Pardee  now  sitteth  and  an- 
other door  opposite  to  it  on  the  other  side,  so  a 
convenient  alley  across  the  house  before  the  dea- 
cons' seat ;  and  a  stairs  up  into  the  galler}^  behind 


302  Old  New  England  Churches 

the   pulpit."      But   even  this   carefully  wrought 
plan  was   changed  later. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  November,  1670,  the 
original  meeting  house  of  the  Centre  Church  at 
New  Haven  was  sold  "  to  the  town's  best  advan- 
tage" and  a  new  house  was  set  up.  In  April, 
1 68 1,  a  church  bell  having  been  brought  into  the 
harbour,  it  suggested  to  the  congregation  the 
need  of  a  bell,  and  "  for  the  present  it  was  desired 
that  Mr.  Thomas  Trowbridge  would,  if  he  can 
prevail  with  Mr.  Hodge,  the  owner  of  it,  to  leave 
it  with  him  until  the  town  hath  had  some  further 
consideration  about  it."  In  short,  should  New 
Haven  raise  money  for  a  church  bell  or  not? 
Then  in  August  "the  owner  of  the  bell  had  sent 
to  have  it  sent  to  the  Bay  in  Joseph  Alsop's  ves- 
sel," which  being  interpreted,  seems  to  mean  that 
New  Haven  had  failed  to  pay  for  its  purchase,  be- 
cause the  reason  of  its  return  was  "  it  having  lain 
so  long  it  would  not  be  handsome  for  the  towTi 
to  put  it  off."  Immediately  "after  a  free  and 
large  debate "  the  Centre  Church  decided  to  pur- 
chase the  bell  for  seventeen  pounds,  and  there- 
after it  was  hung.  About  that  time  the  townsmen 
agreed  that  Joseph,  the  son  of  George  Pardee, 
should  become  bellringer  upon  all  such  occasions 


"    ,  '*' 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         303 

for  which  hitherto  a  dnim  had  been  beaten.  Also 
he  was  to  ring  the  bell  at  nine  o'clock  every  night. 
Thus  civilisation  marched  on  in  the  New  Haven 
colony. 

During  these  years,  New  Haven  not  finding  a 
way  to  establish  its  college  on  its  own  ground,  had 
been  contributing  annually  to  Harvard  what  had 
come  to  be  known  as  "college  com."  While  the 
people  of  New  Haven  were  doing  this  cheerfully 
enough  Providence  began  to  speak  in  a  back- 
handed manner  for  unborn  Yale.  President 
Duntser  of  Harvard,  having  fallen  into  dis- 
grace on  doctrinal  matters,  had  been  deposed 
and  Harvard  had  been  for  a  year  without  a  presi- 
dent. The  misfortunes  of  Harvard  inspired  the 
New  Haven  colony  to  renewed  action,  and  they 
determined  to  turn  their  contributions  toward 
home.  The  first  to  take  practical  action  toward 
the  establishment  of  Yale  College  was  the  scholarly 
and  gentle  William  Hooke,  preacher  in  Centre 
Church.  If  the  titles  of  some  of  his  sermons  may 
be  called  indicative,  one  may  assiime  that  he  antici- 
pated the  modem  love  of  the  spectacular  in  litera- 
ture. The  title  of  one  of  his  sermons  was  "New 
England's  Teares  for  Old  England's  Feares." 
William  Hooke  had  left  England  because  of  his 


304  Old  New  England  Churches 

religious  convictions,  but  returned  because  of  his 
friendship  for  Oliver  Cromwell.  Ultimately  he 
became  chaplain  to  Cromwell  at  Whitehall.  It 
was  his  love  for  his  home  in  the  New  World  that 
induced  him  to  leave  to  the  church  his  "home 
lot"  to  be  a  standing  maintenance  either  toward 
a  **  teaching  officer,  a  schoolmaster,  or  the  benefit 
of  the  poor  in  fellowship."  It  was  upon  this 
"home  lot"  that  all  the  rectors  and  presidents 
of  Yale  College,  from  Cutler  to  the  elder  Dwight, 
lived. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  discuss  the  New  Haven 
chtirch  history  without  including  much  of  Yale's 
early  history.  The  first  pastor  of  Centre  Church 
bom  on  American  soil  was  Mr.  Pierpont,  and 
his  best  claim  to  fame  was  the  foundation  of  Yale. 
He  was  one  of  the  ten  ministers  whose  contri- 
butions from  their  own  meagre  libraries  began 
the  college  library,  and  it  was  through  the  per- 
suasion of  Mr.  Pierpont  that  Elihu  Yale  by  his 
splendid  gift  made  the  college  at  that  time  pos- 
sible. As  the  founder  of  a  great  line  James 
Pierpont  was  a  success.  It  was  his  daughter  who 
married  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  he  may  reckon 
among  his  descendants  the  elder  President  Dwight, 
the    younger    President    Woolsey,    the    present 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         305 

President  D wight,  Theodore  Winthrop,  and  others 
who  have,  almost  in  unbroken  Hne,  contributed 
to  the  splendid  fortunes  of  the  New  World.  The 
Reverend  Mr.  Pierpont  had  his  romances,  and  it 
has  been  said  by  a  clever  writer  that  he  was 
"early  and  often  a  widower."  It  was  to  Centre 
Church  that  his  young  wife  went  on  the  first  Sun- 
day after  her  marriage,  dressed,  according  to  cus- 
tom, in  her  wedding  gown.  This  pretty  vanity 
cost  her  her  life;  she  caught  cold  and  died  three 
months  later.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Pierpont  mar- 
ried in  turn  Sarah  Haynes,  granddaughter  of  the 
Governor,  and  then  a  granddaughter  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Hooker,  who  was  famous  as  pastor  and 
leader  of  the  colony.  It  was  to  this  preacher 
that  the  famous  "Pierpont  Elms"  were  brought 
as  a  gift  from  Hamden.  In  his  time  the  clergy- 
man was  to  be  maintained  by  free-will  offerings. 
His  house  was  to  be  the  most  stately  in  the  town. 
But  in  1697  "  after  long  debate,  the  town  by  their 
vote  granted  to  pay  Rev.  James  Pierpont  annually, 
while  he  shall  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  us,  the  sum 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  in  grain  and 
flesh,  also  to  supply  him  with  firewood  annually," 
while  the  Reverend  Mr.  Pierpont  stipulated  that 
"  the  offering  be  brought  to  the  house  of  God  with- 


3o6  Old  New  England  Churches 

out  lameness  or  reflection  on  the  ministry  in  the 
respective  years."  The  second  meeting  house 
gave  place  to  a  third  building — still  upon  the 
original  site — in  1757,  and  in  time  came  Mr. 
Whittelsey,  but  wars  and  rumours  of  wars  had  be- 
gun to  disturb  the  New  World.  It  was  into  the 
third  meeting  house  that  Wooster  marched  with 
his  company  of  men  to  receive  ministerial  bene- 
diction before  he  and  his  soldiers  should  depart 
for  the  war.  Upon  being  told  that  Mr.  Whittelsey 
was  absent  the  gallant  Wooster  marched  his  men 
into  the  church,  himself  into  the  pulpit,  and 
preached  to  his  soldiers  for  their  betterance  and 
for  the  strengthening  of  their  courage,  after  which 
they  marched  out  across  the  Common  and  away 
to  war.  Neither  battles  nor  sudden  death,  neither 
internal  dissensions  nor  the  great  Revolution 
interrupted  the  service  of  Centre  Church. 

It  was  in  Centre  Church  that  the  regicides, 
Whalley  and  Goffe,  found  support  and  their  pro- 
tection was  urged.  It  was  John  Davenport  who 
bravely  and  tactfully  preached  at  the  right  mo- 
ment to  "  entertain  strangers,  for  thereby  some  have 
entertained  angels  unawares."  The  courageous 
man  knew  that  the  regicides  were  being  sought 
and  he  thus  counselled  his  congregation  in  their 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         307 

behalf.  Later  he  sheltered  the  men  in  his  own 
house.  The  messengers  of  the  king  who  were 
seeking  Goffe  and  Whalley  attended  the  Centre 
Church  but  found  no  encouragement,  because 
again  Davenport  chose  his  text  wisely  and  read: 
"Hide  the  outcasts;  betray  not  him  that  wan- 
dereth;  let  my  outcasts  dwell  with  you,  Moab; 
be  thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of  the 
spoiler."  These  happenings  took  place  in  the 
second  meeting  house  to  which  there  came  later 
one  "James  Davids,"  a  mystery  to  the  town,  his 
dignity  and  culture  making  friends  for  him,  but 
ever  exciting  curiosity.  After  his  death  he  was 
found  to  have  been  John  Dixwell,  one  of  the  three 
regicides  of  King  Charles. 

In  time  this  house  was  outgrown  by  its  con- 
gregation and  more  room,  more  of  modernity  and 
beauty  were  demanded.  Then  in  18 14  came  the 
fourth  house  on  the  same  site,  ultimately  to  be 
made  larger.  The  old  churchyard,  with  its  ancient 
dead  had  to  give  place  to  the  convenience  of  the 
living,  and  the  process  of  removal  began. 

There  rested  dead  whose  names  are  historic 
and  who  had  had  their  places  in  the  splendid 
development  of  a  nation.  Room  was  needed  but 
not    all   were   to   go.      The   new   building    was 


3o8  Old  New  England  Churches 

extended    over    one    hundred    and    thirty-nine 
graves. 

FHckering  gas  Hghts  emphasise  the  weirdness 
of  surrounding  low  rafters  that  serve  for  the  crypt's 
roof  and  for  the  church's  flooring.  The  stones  are 
placed  without  relation  to  compass  or  symmetry. 
They  are  blackened  and  cnmibled,  but  bear 
splendid  testimony  to  the  probity  and  worth  of 
those   whose   graves   they   mark. 

Benedict  Arnold's  first  wife  is  buried  there, 
and  the  former  time  is  linked  with  to-day  when 
one  reads  the  name  of  Hayes — President  Ruther- 
ford B.  Hayes's  grandfather  and  grandmother. 

The  Trowbridge  family  rests  there — twenty- 
five  strong.  It  is  one  of  this  family,  Mr.  Thomas 
R.  Trowbridge  whose  activity  has  preserved  in 
its  present  excellent  state,  this  little  gathering 
of  the  dead.  It  is  he  who  has  promoted  the  level- 
ling of  the  ground,  the  cementing  over  of  the 
graves  which  now  form  the  flooring  of  the  crypt. 
This  effort  has  preserved  a  place  unique  in  this 
country  and  of  interest  to  all  who  yield  to  the 
New  England  past  its  proper  sentimental  value. 
One  Trowbridge  epitaph  leaves  naught  unsaid  of 
a  man's  usefulness  as  a  citizen  and  a  man.  It 
tells  us  that  Captain  Joseph  Trowbridge  was  "A 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         309 

man  diligent  in  business,  strictly  honest  in  his 
dealings,  skilful  and  prudent  in  his  affairs,  gen- 
erous in  his  donations  to  the  public  and  to  the 
house  of  God." 

Not  far  away  lie  the  bones  of  Mary  Edwards, 
"the  amiable  and  excellent  consort  of  Jonathan 
Edwards."     Drowned  accidentally  while  driving. 

The  oldest  stone  marks  the  resting  place  of 
Sarah  Trowbridge.  Its  date  is  1687.  The  last 
burial  was  in  181 2  and  was  that  of  the  wife  of 
Chauncey  Whittelsey.  "Margaret,  first  wife  of 
Benedict  Arnold,  died  June  19,  1775,  in  the 
thirty-first  year  of  her  age."  Here  too  rests 
Jared  IngersoU  of  "Stamp  Act"  fame — "A  man 
of  uncommon  genius  whch  was  cultivated  by  a 
liberal  education  at  Yale  College,  and  improved 
by  the  study  of  mankind  and  laws,  policy  and 
government."  Mrs.  Katharine  Dana's  virtues 
are  chronicled  thus:  "Frugal  and  hospitable, 
compassionate  and  liberal."  Mrs.  Rebekah  Hayes 
was  the  "Amiable  and  virtuous  consort  of  Cap- 
tain Ezekial  Hayes"  and  the  great,  great  grand- 
mother of  President  Hayes. 

Perhaps  nothing  so  demonstrates  a  New  World 
characteristic  as  do  the  unmarked  graves  of  a 
now  famous  family.     Before  the  destruction  of 


3IO  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  old  burial  ground  the  Wyllyses  had  found 
places  in  the  centre  of  it,  but  their  graves  were 
unmarked  for  the  very  good  and  obvious  reason, 
given  in  the  terse  words  of  a  member  of  the  family, 
"if  Connecticut  couldn't  remember  the  Wyllyses 
their  memory  might  rot."  The  first  woman 
buried  in  the  ground  without  was  Martha  Town- 
send.  In  death  the  members  of  the  colony  seemed 
to  seek  proximity  to  each  other  even  as  in  life  they 
had  pressed  together  for  mutual  protection  and 
help.  The  record  gives  sixteen  bodies  to  sixteen 
square  feet. 

In  1784  much  that  was  unseemly  for  so  fair  a 
spot  was  removed,  in  time  the  Green  being  cleared 
of  pound  and  jail  and  almshouse  and  the  stocks. 
When  those  reminders  of  misfortune  were  gone 
the  beautiful  Common  became  sacred  to  the  three 
churches  now  occupying  its  middle  space. 

It  was  Mrs.  Tuttle  who  first  gave  the  name  "  City 
of  Elms  "  to  New  Haven,  and  her  poetic  thought 
had  its  inception  in  the  gift  of  elm  trees  from 
William  Cooper  to  James  Pierpont,  the  preacher. 
Then,  too,  there  was  the  "Franklin  Elm,'*  ac- 
quired from  Jerry  Allen  by  Thaddeus  Beecher 
for  a  "pint  of  rum  and  some  trifles."  It  was 
planted  on  the  day  of  Benjamin  Franklin *s  death. 


CENTRE  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT 
The  Memorial  which  allegorically  tells  the  story  of  the  church's  beginning 


«        «    t"   c 


Centre  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.        311 

Few  places  are  so  rich  in  tradition  as  this  place 
of  the  "Green."  It  was  there  that  Benedict 
Arnold  assembled  the  Governor's  Guard  to  lead 
them  to  Cambridge  to  swell  the  patriot  army. 
Here  Lafayette  reviewed  troops  and  Washington 
passed  to  church  at  Trinity.  To  tell  half  its 
legends  would  require  much  space.  Those  names 
firmest  linked  with  New  Haven  history  are  found 
for  the  most  part  chronicled  upon  the  church 
walls.  They  are  Davenport,  Eaton,  Hooke,  Pier- 
pont,  Hayes,  Street,  Whittelsey,  Taylor,  Bacon, 
Stewart,  Dana,  Trowbridge,  Hillhouse,  Austin, 
and  many  more. 

The  symbolic  window  above  the  pulpit  tells  in 
gorgeous  colour  the  whole  splendid  story — Daven- 
port preaching  beneath  the  oak,  the  seven  men 
who  planned  the  future  of  the  church  symbolised 
by  the  seven-branched  candlestick,  the  armed 
men,  listening  women,  and  awe-smitten  children; 
the  story  of  the  wilderness,  the  bravery,  the  faith 
and  hope  that  were  to  waken  a  new  day  and  found 
a  new  race. 


UNITED  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN, 
CONN. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

United  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

THE  history  of  the  United  Church  is  man 
rather  than  meeting  house  history;  but 
the  man  is  one  so  well  known  in  letters  and  public 
life  that  it  were  impertinent  to  attempt  his  auto- 
biography with  less  than  completeness,  and  com- 
pleteness cannot  be  hoped  for  in  the  limited 
space  given  to  this  meeting  house  story. 

Doctor  Theodore  T.  Hunger,  pastor  emeritus, 
has  largely  made  the  history  of  the  United  Church, 
for  many  years.  He  has  instituted  changes  and 
inspired  a  mostly  united  people  with  that  faith, 
hope,  and  charity  which  has  for  decades  been  the 
key-note  of  his  published  work  and  private  teaching. 

The  Church  was  planted  in  this  most  fanatically 

religious  colony  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty 

years  ago.     The  foot-stove    is  well    within    the 

history  of  the  present  building — ^which  has  the 

distinction  of  being  one  of  the  last  in  New  Haven 

to  be  laid  in  that  brick  pattern  known  as  Flemish 

bond.     It  is  a  part  of  the  story  of  the  present  house 

that  its  early  preachers  have  preached  muffled  in 

315 


3i6  Old  New  England  Churches 

overcoat  and  furred  gloves,  but  there  is  no 
story  of  frozen  zeal  to  record.  Whether  the 
fashions  dictated  the  manner  of  pulpit  may  be 
problematical,  but  it  is  certain  that  if  it  had 
not  been  greatly  elevated  as  it  was,  the  flaring 
bonnets  of  that  first  generation  in  the  history 
of  the  present  house,  would  have  sent  the 
preacher  into  total  eclipse.  One  of  the  former 
buildings  was  known  as  the  Blue  Meeting-house, 
and  when  the  new  one  was  put  up,  a  piece  of  the 
stair  railing  of  that  blue  house  was  en  evidence. 
Since  that  time  it  has  formed  a  part  of  the  attic 
staircase  of  a  house  on  College  Street.  It  still 
retains  its  original  colour,  and  should  be  incor- 
porated after  some  fashion  in  the  present  build- 
ings, and  restored  as  often  as  might  be  necessary 
to  preserve  its  original  blue,  since  it  would  one 
day  fix  the  physical  characteristics  of  an  early 
Puritan  meeting  house  with  more  of  accuracy 
than  legend  can  do.  None  of  such  details  is  un- 
important when  history  comes  to  be  made.  There 
is  tradition  for  it  that  Fair  Haven  folk  came  to 
worship  barefooted,  as  far  as  the  green,  and  there 
they  sat  down  and  put  on  their  shoes  and  stockings. 
This  was  less  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  in  the 
history  of  the  Blue  Meeting-house. 


Photograph  by  Ihe  Finley  Studio,  New  Haven 

UNITED  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT 

Which  stands  as  the  symbol  of  Independent  Citizenshio,  and  being,  with  the  Old  South  of  Boston,  the  first  churches  to 

separate  state  and  ecclesiastical  interests 


United  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         317 

Like  the  foundations  of  the  Old  South  Church 
society  in  Boston,  the  United  Church  came  out  of 
the  separation  of  ecclesiastical  interests  from  those 
of  the  state,  and  Doctor  Hunger  has  presented  this 
matter  best  of  all  in  his  historical  discourse  on 
the  United  Church.     "We  must  remember,  as  we 
recall  the  history  of  the  First  Church  during  the 
period  when  this   church  was   extricating    itself 
from  it  and  for  some  years  after,  that  it  is  the 
history  of  a  state  as  well  as  of  a  church,  and  that 
sentiments  and  actions  which  seem  to  spring  out 
of  the    church  may  properly  be  referred  to  the 
state;    that    is,   they  may  be  regarded  political 
rather  than  religious.     The  distinction  is  real,  and 
should  be  made  in  behalf  of  men  who  were  moved 
by  the  fervours  of  both  politics  and  religion.     On 
the  other  hand,  we  do  not  regard  the  founders 
of  this  church  with  sufficient  honotir  unless  we 
keep  in  mind  that  their  separation  from  the  First 
Church  was  a  political  as  well  as  a  religious  move- 
ment.    In  fact  the  political  features  strike  deeper 
and  are  more  important  than  the  religious.     The 
religious  changes  would  have  soon  come  on,  even 
as  they  did,  but  the  political  changes  were  radical 
anb  fundamental." 

So  one  and  indivisible  were  Church  and  State 


3i8  Old  New  England  Churches 

interests  in  this  colony,  that  it  was  a  question 
whether  business  transactions  could  be  considered 
legal  unless  conducted  by  church  members.  A 
protest  was  made  against  this  one  hundred  years 
before  the  resistance  took  actual  form  in  the 
founding  of  the  United  Church. 

Doctor  Hunger  has  called  attention  to  the  in- 
evitable weakness  that  must  have  followed  this 
situation,  since  "at  last  the  church  became 
simply  a  pathway  to  civil  rights — a  means  and 
not  an  end.  .  .  .  The  church  hindered  the 
growth  of  those  seeds  of  freedom  and  popular  gov- 
ernment which  had  been  brought  from  England, 
and  the  state  choked  the  currents  of  spiritual  life 
in  the  church." 

It  was  of  an  early  understanding  of  this  situation 
that  the  United  Church  was  bom.  Doctor  Hun- 
ger regards  the  time  of  "Great  Awakening" 
and  Whitefield's  emotional  excesses  in  the  light 
of  a  spiritual  performance,  much  needed,  at  the 
same  time  giving  that  moment  its  proper  value 
as  one  more  superficial  than  profound,  and  says, 
"whatever  its  excesses,  it  marked  the  condition 
out  of  which  it  came,  and  of  which  it  was  the 
reaction,"  and  he  epigrammatically  adds,  "  action 
and  reaction  are  equal,  and  interpret  each  other." 


United  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.        319 

But  he  gives  that  hour  a  spiritual  rather  than  a 
simply  emotional  value — in  which  he  may  or  may 
not  be  right;  probably  not.  It  would  seem  to 
many  of  us  an  instance  of  universal  hysteria — 
culminating  in  a  war  which  cleared  the  air. 

The  United  Church  did  not  find  its  people  free 
to  separate  themselves  from  the  parent  First 
Church  by  any  means.  The  divorcement  was  a 
long  and  difficult  process,  during  which  both  socie- 
ties found  themselves  wickedly  embroiled  and  full  of 
trouble.  But  the  new  church  stood  for  freedom  of 
citizenship  and  conscience  as  opposed  to  ecclesias- 
tical slavery,  and  the  success  of  its  cause  was  for- 
gone. As  was  usual  in  the  history  of  most  of  the  dis- 
senting offshoots  of  original  colonial  churches,  the 
United  Chiirch  wished  to  maintain  the  right  to  be 
considered  the  original  organisation,  reestablished, 
instead  of  a  new  organisation;  and  not  unnatur- 
ally, the  parent  organisation  objected  to  second 
place;  thus,  after  separation  was  determined 
on,  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  controversy  which 
from  first  to  last  was  the  breath  of  life  to  the 
Ptiritan  Church,  and  its  real  reason  for  existing. 
No  one  seemed  to  remember  that  the  people  were 
organised  on  a  basis  of  religious  argument  where- 
in it  was  declared  that  the  first  should  be  last,  and 


320  Old  New  England  Churches 

no  one  accepted  a  back  seat  with  grace,  much  less 
with  eagerness.  But  consistency  nor  self  efface- 
ment  were  basic  characteristics  of  those  Puritan 
folk.  They  were  the  most  egotistical  and  pre- 
sumptuous people,  preaching  humility  and  sub- 
mission. 

The  United  Church  began  with  the  association 
of  forty-three  persons  who  met  together  for  fast- 
ing and  prayer.  Although  the  new  church  had 
gained  its  freedom  from  the  parent  organisation, 
it  continued  to  pay  taxes  into  the  treasury  of  the 
original  church  for  seventeen  years,  which 
did  not  tend  to  lessen  the  antagonism.  The 
lot  upon  which  the  first  building  of  the  United 
Church  was  placed,  measured  "about"  six  rods 
on  Church  Street,  and  Doctor  Hunger  calls  atten- 
tion to  it  that  "in  those  days  they  measured  their 
doctrines  more  accurately  than  their  land." 

As  usual  it  was  continuous  persecution  which 
finally  established  the  United  Church,  and  pres- 
ently we  find  it  with  a  settled  ministry  and  a 
"blue  house,"  which  caused  the  First  Church  to 
proclaim  it  a  public  nuisance  and  to  take  action 
against  it  as  such.  Possibly,  there  was  some 
aesthetic  cause  for  war;  at  any  rate  the  factions 
grew  so  hot  that  a  watch  was  set  upon  the  new 


United  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.         321 

blue  building  to  prevent  those  of  the  First  Church 
cutting  the  timbers  and  jeopardising  the  lives  of 
the  congregation.  Soon  after  this  Whitefield  came 
a  second  time,  and,  finding  no  place  for  him  in 
the  First  Church  pulpit,  preached  from  a  plat- 
form placed  before  the  house  of  James  Pierpont. 
In  1748  the  United  Church  made  new  friends, 
and  a  new  society  was  formed  by  "voluntary 
compact,"  in  which  there  was  but  one  woman — 
the  women  had  dominated  by  numbers  in  the  first 
society  while  in  the  present  society  there  is  no 
woman.  There  is  little  or  no  history  of  the  first 
administration  which  covered  a  period  of  only 
two  years,  but  with  the  coming  of  the  second 
preacher,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Bird,  an  effort  was  made 
by  the  United  Church  to  heal  the  breach  between 
itself  and  the  First  Church.  Samuel  Bird  had 
consented  to  take  the  pulpit  only  on  condition 
that  strife  should  cease.  But  at  that  time  the 
First  Church  would  have  none  of  reconciliation 
and  the  trouble  continued,  although  Samuel 
Bird  was  settled  in  the  pulpit.  Probably  the 
First  Church  suspected  that  the  overture  was 
made  because  the  United  Church's  congregation 
most  of  all  desired  the  services  of  the  preacher 
who      demanded      peace      before      ordination. 


322  Old  New  England  Churches 

Almost  at  once,  upon  his  coming,  the  diffi- 
culties changed  complexion,  becoming  politi- 
cal rather  than  ecclesiastical.  The  United 
Church,  having  paid  taxes  for  many  years  to  the 
First  Church,  had  no  mind  to  abandon  its  rights 
in  the  property  of  the  First  organisation,  while  the 
First  Church  was  now  quite  ready  to  shake  off 
its  former  supporters.  The  settlement  of  this 
controversy  was  as  full  of  humour  as  was  any  part 
of  the  ecclesiastical  war.  The  First  Church  re- 
tained its  building,  while  the  bell  and  such  prop- 
erty as  belonged  to  the  society  before  its  divi- 
sion were  to  be  held  by  the  two  societies.  In  that 
period  of  its  history  while  the  United  Church  was 
the  Fair  Haven  Church,  Jonathan  Edwards, 
son  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Sarah  Pierpont, 
came  to  preach  and  his  perhaps  is  the  only  his- 
toric name  associated  with  the  United  Church 
pulpit. 

After  a  time  that  ruling  passion  of  the  Puritan 
wherever  he  may  be  found — dissension  and  dis- 
cord— showed  even  in  the  new  society,  and  a  part 
of  the  people  who  had  weathered  so  much  together, 
decided  to  "go  off  and  worship  by  themselves," 
and  so  retired  to  the  State  House  for  a  time. 
After  that  came  the  customary  trouble  over  the 


United  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.        323 

"half  way  covenant,"  and  the  new  society  lacked 
none  of  those  encouraging  difficulties  of  irritation 
and  discord  upon  which  the  faith  was  certain  to 
thrive.  But  the  enduring  moment  in  the  early 
history  of  the  pulpit  belonged  to  Edwards, 
whose  eloquence  was  so  passionately  used 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  Doctor 
Hunger  wrote:  "It  is  my  guess  that  Washing- 
ton, who  attended  service  at  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  morning,  passed  by  the  larger  and  first 
Fair  Haven  church  on  the  Green  and  went  to 
the  Blue  Meeting  house  in  order  to  hear  Doctor 
Edwards  whose  reputation  was  general,  and  that 
perchance  the  Father  of  his  cotintry  was  better 
satisfied  than  if  he  had  heard  a  disquisition  on 
man's  natural  ability  to  repent."  Doctor  Hun- 
ger was  very  likely  a  good  guesser. 

While  the  preachers  of  the  United  Church  were 
mostly  men  of  conscience,  the  record  is  not  quite 
clear  of  dishonest  doings.  The  Rev.  Doctor 
Dutton  concealed  slaves  in  his  own  bam,  helping 
to  rob  men  of  their  property,  misusing  the  law  thus, 
and  aiding  numbers  of  negroes  thus  to  pass  into 
Canada.  Probably  the  men  who  did  these  things 
made  these  deeds  accord  in  some  fashion  with 
their  ideas  of  honesty,  but  only  the  complicated 


324  Old  New  England  Churches 

Puritan  mind  could  have  done  it.  They  were  not 
greatly  concerned  with  the  rights  of  property, 
unless  the  property  was  theirs. 

Out  of  chaos  of  thought  and  feeling  grew  a 
fixed  and  progressive  organisation  whose  name 
to-day  indicates  fraternity  and  permanency. 


1 


FIRST  CHURCH,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 


CHAPTER  XX 
First  Church,  Hartford,  Connecticut 

BRAINTREE  in  Essex  County,  England,  was 
the  original  home  of  the  Hartford  church. 
The  emigrants  of  1632  found  a  place  to  settle  in 
Newtown,  now  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  The 
meeting  house  which  the  people  built  had  "  a  bell 
upon  it."  Four  years  later  the  congregation  arose 
and  went  elsewhere,  carrying  with  it  the  pastor 
and  teacher.  The  most  interesting  thing  about 
the  removal  was  the  difficulty  with  which  it  was 
accomplished.  The  people  had  to  go  through  the 
trackless  forest  driving  one  hundred  and  sixty 
cattle  before  them,  living  upon  milk,  and  avoid- 
ing wild  beasts  and  savages  as  best  they  could. 

The  first  Hartford  meeting  house  was  built 
"  a  little  north  of  where  the  Universalist  meeting 
house  now  stands."  One  historian  tells  us  that 
it  was  thatched,  but  it  was  more  likely  to  be  tiled 
or  shingled  as  in  that  vicinity  there  was  much  of 
such  material  used  in  preference  to  thatch. 

In   1649   "this   first  building  became  unfit   for 

public  worship,  and  it  was  given  to  Mr.  Hooker, 

327 


328  Old  New  England  Churches 

who  had  preached  to  the  congregation  in  England, 
had  been  their  pastor  at  Newtown,  and  had  mi- 
grated with  them  to  Hartford.  In  1648  the 
second  house  of  this  church  was  built.  Mr. 
Hooker  ministered  there  for  fourteen  years,  and 
must  have  had  exceedingly  gentle  methods  for 
during  that  time  we  read  of  only  one  person  being 
admonished  and  but  one  excommunicated.  Since 
nearly  all  New  England  lived  to  exercise  its  con- 
science vicariously,  to  admonish  everyone,  every- 
where, at  every  time,  we  regard  a  peaceful  eccle- 
siastical administration  as  bizarre,  and  surely 
not  conservative  since  severity  established  the 
rule. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  revealed  himself  very 
completely  when  he  came  to  die.  "  Last  words  ** 
are  apt  to  be  given  more  importance  than  they 
deserve,  but  Hooker's  "last  words"  are  worth 
remembering : 

"You  are  going  to  receive  the  reward  of  your 
labours,"  said  a  friend  to  him  comfortingly. 

"Brother,  I  am  going  to  receive  mercy,'*  was 
the  gentle  Hooker's  response. 

It  was  he  who  declared,  "The  foundation  of 
authority  is  laid  firstly  by  the  free  consent  of  the 
people";  and  of  this  Dr.  Bacon  wrote, 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  329 

"That  sermon  by  Thomas  Hooker  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  First  Church  of  Hartford  is  the  earhest 
known  suggestion  of  a  fundamental  law,  enacted 
not  by  any  royal  charter,  or  by  concession  from 
any  previously  existing  government,  but  by  the 
people  themselves — a  primary  and  supreme  law 
by  which  the  government  is  constituted  and  not 
only  provides  for  the  free  choice  of  magistrates  by 
the  people  but  also  sets  the  bounds  and  limita- 
tions of  power  to  which  each  magistrate  is  called." 

It  was  but  eight  months  later  that  the  Funda- 
mental Laws  were  "  sentenced,  ordered,  and  de- 
creed," and  we  feel  that  Thomas  Hooker  should 
share  the  honours  with  Roger  Ludlow. 

An  historian  tells  us  that  Hooker's  "writings 
were  valued  with  those  of  the  very  first  class  of 
New  England  Divines,"  but  this  by  no  means 
implies  that  they  were  valuable  either  as  literature 
or  philosophy.  Though  there  were  among  these 
preachers  more  than  one  hundred  university  grad- 
uates, some  of  them  classmates  of  Jeremy  Taylor, 
George  Herbert,  and  Milton,  it  does  not  follow 
that  a  Shakespeare  or  a  Sophocles  was  developed 
in  the  group.  That  university  class  turned  out 
Miltons  and  Puritans. 

We  have  Cotton  Mather's  "Magnalia"  as  the 
standard  of  literature  produced  by  these  men, 
and  that  leaves  everything  in  literature  to  be 


330  Old  New  England  Churches 

desired.  As  revelations  of  much  restricted  minds 
made  in  a  directly  personal  fashion,  these  pen- 
performances  have  their  value,  but  if  one  wants 
helpful  information,  given  with  anything  ap- 
proaching literary  charm,  he  turns  to  the  delight- 
fully frank  and  simply  expressed  revelations  to  be 
found  in  the  diaries  of  such  men  as  Benjamin 
Lynde  and  the  sturdy  Sewall.  These  two  had 
too  much  virility  to  lose  their  identity  in  the 
dominant  superstitions  of  the  times ;  yet  they  had 
enough  temperament  to  be  played  upon  very 
positively  by  Puritan  purpose. 

The  Hartford  church  records  were  early  de- 
stroyed, so  that  we  are  left  without  certain  official 
data;  but  we  know  that  in  1670  there  was  a 
division  which  led  to  a  new  organisation.  People 
began  to  be  admitted  to  the  church  under  the 
"Half  Way  Covenant,"  and  this  caused  much 
distraction. 

The  third  house  was  dedicated  December  30, 1 739, 
and  it  stood  very  nearly  on  the  site  of  the  present 
one,  dedicated  in  1807.  The  low  state  of  Chris- 
tianity was  deplored  soon  after  the  new  form  of 
covenant  was  adopted.  The  "  Half  Way  Covenant " 
seemed  to  result  in  half  way  Christianity,  and  little 
vitality  remained  in  the  congregation. 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  331 

The  church  did  give  one  contributor  to  literature 
in  its  pastor,  Dr.  Strong,  but  he  was  modem  in 
the  history  of  New  England  divines,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  this  literature  of 
the  New  England  church  was  in  very  good  com- 
pany. Men  had  by  that  time  developed  a  sense 
of  humour  which  began  to  create  in  them  a  sense 
of  proportion  hitherto  painfully  lacking. 

During  his  ministry  Dr.  Strong  ran  a  distillery 
as  a  side  issue,  but  his  enterprise  terminated  un- 
fortunately in  1798,  when  judgments  were  granted 
against  his  property  "and  in  default  of  that, 
against  the  bodies  of  Messrs.  Strong  and  Smith  on 
the  judgment  against  them."  The  preacher  went 
to  New  York  as  a  matter  of  prudence ;  but  presently 
finding  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff,  he  said 
he  would  go  with  him  if  compelled,  "  but  if  he  went 
he  would  never  enter  the  pulpit  again";  where- 
upon the  sheriff  compromised  the  matter  in  some 
fashion  and  released  the  preacher. 

The  ruin  of  the  Doctor's  spirituous  affairs 
seems  to  have  been  the  renaissance  of  the  spiritual 
condition  in  his  church,  and  a  tremendous  revival 
followed.  When  he  had  to  forsake  his  rum- 
making  Mr.  Strong  concentrated  all  his  forces 
upon  a  volume  of  sermons  which  are  said  to  have 


332  Old  New  England  Churches 

been  "eminently  fitted  to  awaken  and  promote 
a  quickening  of  ecclesiastical  piety."  Later  he 
tried  to  reconcile  Eternal  Misery  with  Infinite 
Benevolence,  and  it  is  said  of  his  discourses  that 
"  Unlike  a  great  proportion  of  the  sermons  at  that 
time,  they  are  readable  and  might  be  effectively 
preached  to-day."  The  revival  conducted  by 
Dr.  Strong  was  notable. 

Certain  commonplace  details  marked  at  that 
time  extraordinary  periods  in  the  church  history. 
Just  before  Dr.  Strong's  death  stoves  were  intro- 
duced into  the  meeting  house  and  the  pulpit  was 
lowered.  It  has  been  lowered  three  times  since, 
so  that  originally  it  must  have  been  a  remarkable 
height.  The  protracted  meeting  had  its  Con- 
necticut birth  here.  Among  other  meeting  house 
gossip  it  is  chronicled  that  Thomas  Woodford 
was  employed  to  advertise  lost  things.  The 
town  order  was  framed  thus: 

"If any  person  hath  lost  anything  that  he  de- 
sireth  shall  be  cried  in  the  public  meeting,  he  shall 
pay  for  crying  of  it  twopence  to  Thomas  Wood- 
ford to  be  paid  before  it  be  cried;  and  the  crier 
shall  have  a  book  of  the  things  that  he  crieth." 

The  authority  for  this  detail  is  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Peters,  who  has  also  stated  that  which  Hartford 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  333 

would  probably  like  to  repudiate:  the  first  witch 
in  America  was  condemned  and  executed  at  Hart- 
ford through  the  efforts  of  that  church. 

Deacon  John  Edwards,  uncle  of  the  famous 
Jonathan  Edwards,  preserved  with  care  the  small- 
est recorded  details,  and  from  that  source  we 
learn  that  ten  nails  in  the  old  meeting  house  build- 
ing were  sold  for  fourpence  half -penny. 

Slave  labour  was  employed  in  the  construction 
of  the  third  house,  and  the  lime  used  in  building 
was  procured  from  shells  that  were  brought 
from  the  seacoast  for  that  purpose.  To  raise  the 
spire-pole  of  the  building  it  took  a  deal  of  spirit 
not  only  of  the  temperamental  sort  but  of  the  kind 
to  be  had  from  two  gallons  of  cider,  two  quarts 
and  a  pint  of  rum  "  to  treat  the  hands  when  histed 
up  ye  Spire  Pole  into  ye  Tower."  Again  there 
was  consumed  eighteen  quarts  of  rum  "when 
rayzed  the  Spire."  This  was  only  a  part  of  the 
refreshment  demanded  for  one  end  of  the  work. 
It  gives  us  pause  when  we  try  to  calculate  what 
it  must  have  required  in  the  way  of  liquid  measure 
to  set  up  the  entire  structure. 

There  were  "  waits  in  ye  windows  "  of  this  house, 
which  were  procured  by  JohnBeauchamp  from  Bos- 
ton, which  tells  us  that  such  machinery  is  not  entire- 


334  Old  New  England  Churches 

ly  modem;  but  with  all  its  conveniences,  its  hour 
glass,  its  velvet  cushions,  its  gorgeous  weather- 
cpck,  its  fine  window  hangings,  the  congregation 
sat  without  a  stove  until  late  in  Dr.  Strong's  time. 
The  contribution  box  was  not  then,  as  we  now 
frequently  find  it,  an  amusing  little  corn-popper 
shoved  before  the  people,  but  a  substantial  box 
placed  in  the  Deacon's  seat,  and  the  people  walked 
to  it.  The  magistrates  went  first,  then  the  Elders, 
and  the  rest  of  the  congregation  that  had  anything 
to  give  brought  up  the  rear.  As  the  contributions 
were  as  likely  to  be  pumpkins  as  coins,  these  pro- 
cessions were  not  without  picturesqueness. 

There  was  much  dissatisfaction  in  regard  to 
establishing  precedence  in  seating  the  congrega- 
tion. In  Hartford  five  picked  men  laboured 
long  over  the  problem,  and  after  seating  the  people 
according  to  the  committee's  conscience  and  judg- 
ment, we  find  Joseph  Gilbert,  Jr.,  "setting  forth, 
sundry  grievances  respecting  the  seating  of  our 
meeting  house,  and  more  especially  the  committy 
seating  him."  Six  others  were  chosen  to  do  the 
work,  but  in  trying  to  please  everybody  they 
pleased  nobody  and  in  their  turn  gave  it  up.  A 
committee  of  three  untried  men  followed  but  in 
the  end  it  was  decreed: 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  335 

"That  the  Inhabitants  of  the  society  for  the 
future,  and  until  otherwise  ordered,  have  Liberty 
to  accommodate  themselves  with  seats  in  the 
Meeting  house  at  their  discretion,  any  measure 
this  society  hath  heretofore  taken  for  seating  the 
house  notwithstanding." 

Until  1767  there  was  much  objection  to  Dr. 
Franklin's  "  lightening  rods  "  but  in  that  year  the 
congregation  probably  felt  that  it  had  received 
a  special  revelation  on  the  subject,  for  Hartford 
church  was  struck  by  lightning  which  shattered 
its  steeple,  killed  one  young  woman,  and  wounded 
several  others.  "  In  the  midst  of  this  excitement 
they  were  desired  every  one  of  them  to  return  to 
their  seats,  and  join  in  singing  a  song  to  the  praise 
of  Almighty  God."  If  we  doubt  their  discretion 
we  cannot  but  admire  their  obstinacy.  It 
seems  that  God  could  not  have  displeased 
these  Puritans  unless  He  had  chosen  to 
treat  them  civilly.  They  finally  accepted  the 
electrical  exhibition  as  a  gentle  indication  that 
their  notion  about  "lightening  rods"  was  all 
wrong.  A  good  many  had  objected  to  the  "  erec- 
tion of  sharp  points " — even  as  the  Chinese  pro- 
tested against  railroads,  because  their  super- 
stitions made  parallel  lines  a  cause  of  apprehen- 
sion;   though  the   Puritans   would   consider   the 


33^  Old  New  England  Churches 

Chinese  in  the  direct  line  of  the  missionary. 
Those  who  objected  to  "sharp  points"  ''wished 
that  it  might  not  be  a  means  of  drawing  down 
Divine  displeasure"  instead  of  safety.  As  a 
clever  historian  puts  it : 

"With  the  needed  appropriation  for  repairs 
to  the  steeple  was  included  the  amount  required 
to  procure  the  much  despised  protectors;  and 
1767,  I  think,  may  fairly  be  entered  on  our  annals 
as  the  year  when  the  lightning  rod  man  discovered 
Hartford." 

Foot-stoves  were  finally  put  out  of  the  meeting 
house  in  1830,  stoves  having  arrived  fifteen  years 
before.  After  that  any  foot-stoves  found  in  the 
house  after  service  were  removed  to  the  por- 
tico by  order  of  the  committee. 

One  of  our  greatest  scientists  belonged  to  this 
church,  Horace  Wells,  who  gave  to  the  world  the 
principle  of  anaesthesia  in  surgery.  Out  of  this 
church  also  came  two  men  who  "  made  the  dumb 
to  speak,  the  deaf  to  hear,"  inventing  a  system 
of  "  deaf  and  dumb  "  language. 

If  Connecticut  contributed  the  meeting  houses, 
its  meeting  houses  contributed  the  men  who  in- 
vented certain  equipments  of  war,  revolving  arms, 
submarine   torpedoes,    breech-loading   guns,    and 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  337 

other  mechanisms  which  make  for  peace.     Who 
now  goes  to  war  without  Connecticut? 

Some  of  the  most  extraordinary  movements  in 
science  as  well  as  in  ecclesiasticism  may  be  traced 
to  that  First  Church  of  Hartford;  and  thus  its 
influence  probably  reaches  farther  round  the 
world  than  that  of  any  other  organisation  in  ex- 
istence. 

People  were  assisted  amazingly  to  go  to  meeting 
in  those  days.  In  Ipswich  when  an  inhabitant 
failed,  with  his  wife,  to  go  to  church,  the  General 
Court  ordered  that  the  selectmen  should  sell  the 
man's  possessions,  so  that  he  and  his  family  might 
live  near  the  meeting  house,  and  thus  find  it 
more  convenient  to  attend  its  services. 

It  became  necessary  for  the  Court  to  regulate 
the  peaks  of  men's  shoes  because  they  had  grown 
so  long  they  interfered  with  kneeling  in  God's 
house.  The  General  Court  ordered  that  no  man 
should  wear  gold  or  silver  lace  or  buttons  unless 
he  was  worth  two  hundred  pounds ;  neither  should 
he  walk  in  great  boots  because  leather  was  scarce. 
Times  had  changed  when  Benjamin  Franklin 
stood  at  the  bar  of  the  house  of  Commons  in  1766. 
On  examination  he  was  asked 

"What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  America?" 


338  Old  New  England  Churches 

"To  indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures 
of  Great  Britain,"  Franklin  answered. 

"What  is  now  her  pride?" 

"To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again  until 
they  can  make  new  ones." 

There  were  marvellous  burial  customs  in  that 
day.  When  Winthrop  died  a  barrel  and  a  half 
of  powder  was  burned,  though  why  the  Puritans 
should  do  anything  so  supererogatory  cannot  be 
imagined  since  it  was  taken  for  granted  that 
death  itself  implied  fireworks  and  a  hot 
time  for  most  people.  At  the  death  of  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Sheperd,  Judge  Sewall  writes  in 
his  diary,  "It  seems  there  were  some  verses, 
but  none  pinned  on  the  herse.  Scholars  went 
before  the  herse."  This  gives  the  key  to  certain 
surviving  customs. 

People  went  to  funerals  from  the  same  motive 
that  takes  them  now  to  a  game  of  Bridge— to 
win :  this  extraordinary  man,  Sewall,  who  turned 
his  soul  inside  out  on  paper,  mentions  also  in  his 
diary,  apropos  of  his  refusal  to  go  to  the  funeral 
of  a  wicked  man: 

"Had  gloves  sent  me  but  staid  at  home,  and  by 
that  means  lost  a  ring." 

Doctor  Andrew  Eliot  must  according  to  calcu- 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  339 

lation  have  received  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  pairs  of  gloves  at  funerals,  baptisms,  and 
weddings  during  thirty-two  years;  and  he  turned 
about  sixty-four  dollars'  worth  of  these  to  good 
account. 


FIRST  CHURCH  (**OLD  JERUSALEM"), 
PORTLAND,  ME. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

First  Church  ("Old  Jerusalem").   Portland, 

Maine 

THE  history  of  this  parish  begins  when 
the  four  towns,  Portland,  Falmouth, 
Cape  Elizabeth,  and  Westbrook  were  incor- 
porated under  one  government  and  called  Fal- 
mouth. In  1725  there  were  but  forty-five  fami- 
lies in  the  town  of  Falmouth  and  the  meeting  house 
had  existed  about  five  years.  At  first  it  was  the 
living  room,  so  to  speak,  of  all  the  people.  This 
region  so  far  away  from  the  centre  of  New  England 
civilisation,  was  poorer  and  more  desolate  than 
most  of  the  settlements,  even  in  their  beginnings; 
and  Falmouth  seems  to  have  been  less  purpose- 
ful, therefore  unorganised. 

The  settlement  was  too  poor  to  have  a 
preacher  when  the  meeting  house  was  made, 
and  it  necessarily  served  as  a  barracks  for 
fishermen  or  soldiers,  and  also  as  a  sort  of 
inn  at  which  visitors  could  put  up.  Until 
1725,    when     the    Rev.    Thomas     Smith     came, 

the    parish    had    been    only    itinerantly    served. 

343 


346  Old  New  England  Churches 

escaped  fire.  One  of  the  balls  which  pierced  the 
building  and  fell  into  the  house  was  affixed  to  the 
ceiling  in  the  new  church,  and  afterward  a  chan- 
delier was  suspended  from  it. 

It  had  seemed  impossible  in  1758  for  the  congre- 
gation to  live  in  peace  and  unity,  and  the  town 
split  into  four  parishes.  Those  living  far  from 
the  church  had  continually  agitated  the  question 
of  moving  it  into  town,  but  when  the  repairs, 
the  new  equipment  of  bell  and  steeple,  and  even 
an  associate  pastor  came  to  the  vote  it  was  plain 
to  the  dissenters  that  the  church  never  would 
"move  into  town,"  hence  they  decided  to  build 
a  house  of  their  own.  There  was  always  a  lack 
of  unity  among  the  citizens.  There  were  no  large 
or  embarrassing  disagreements  but  many  petty 
annoyances  that  made  commonalty  of  feeling 
and  action  in  the  parish  impossible.  Perhaps 
the  most  serious  distraction  was  that  which  had 
to  do  with  the  situation  of  the  church — the  in- 
convenience of  its  location — for  it  had  not  been 
erected  under  the  colonial  rule  that  the  meeting 
house  should  be  the  "  centre  of  the  town."  Even 
had  the  usual  dispute  arisen,  "  Where  is  the  centre 
of  the  town?"  it  might  have  been  somewhat 
better  to  have  placed  it  with  an  attempt  at  focus. 


First  Church,  Portland,  Me.  347 

Somebody  might  then  have  been  pleased,  but  as  it 
was  nobody  seems  to  have  been  pleased. 

Though  this  was  one  of  the  most  conservative 
of  all  parishes,  settlers,  elsewhere  persecuted, 
came  to  Falmouth  to  escape.  Tate  and  Brady's 
hymns  were  used  in  the  church  until  1802.  It  was 
in  the  second  exclusively  church  building  that 
the  convention  was  held  which  framed  the  con- 
stitution of  Maine. 

At  this  time  occurred  the  ordination  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Smith.  The  one  memorable  day  in  a  New 
England  parson's  life  was  that  of  his  ordination. 
A  county  fair  years  later  brought  together  no 
more  people  under  no  more  gala  conditions  than 
did  the  ordination  of  a  preacher  in  New  England. 
It  is  not  often  that  from  so  dry  a  source  as  sta- 
tistics one  can  extract  much  colour  and  vitality, 
or  pictures  of  riot  and  license,  but  memoranda  of 
these  ordination  affairs  present  these  things.  There 
were  processions  of  councilmen  and  gentlemen, 
townsmen  and  countrymen.  The  band  played  and 
the  edibles  went  round,  the  meeting  house  filled  and 
emptied  and  filled  again  to  overcrowding,  and 
more  money  was  spent  by  the  town,  which  as- 
sessed it  out  of  the  citizens,  in  one  day  than  the 
preacher  got  in  a  year.     We  read  in  the  records 


348  Old  New  England  Churches 

of  one  town  the  following  ordination  bills,  all  met 
by  its  citizens: 

433  dinners ;ig44     2s  6d 

178  suppers 818 

Keeping  3  2  horses  4  days        .        .  3 

6  J  bbls.  of  cider   ....  411 

25  gal.  of  wine 9  u 

2  gal.  of  brandy  &  4  of  rum        .  116 

Loaf  sugar,  lime  juice  &  pipes        .  112 

"32  horses  4  days"  tells  us  that  the  ordination 
probably  lasted  as  long  as  rum  and  the  town's 
exchequer  held  out.  When  New  England  got 
religion  or  a  preacher  it  got  them  bad;  but 
gaiety  they  seem  to  have  had  worse.  The 
meeting  house  all  these  days  was  so  crowded 
that  we  read  in  one  town  they  were  seated  upon 
the  beams  over  the  congregation,  and  to  quote 
from  a  letter  written  at  the  time: 

**  There  was  a  disturbance  in  ye  gallery  when  it 
was  filled  with  divers  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  In- 
dians, and  a  negro  called  Pomp  Shorter  belonging 
to  Mr.  Gardner  was  called  forth  and  put  in  ye 
broad  aisle  where  he  was  reproved  with  great 
awefulness  and  solemnity.  He  was  then  put  in  ye 
deacons'  seat,  between  2  Deacons  in  view  of  ye 
whole  Congregation,  but  ye  sexton  was  ordered 
by  Prescott  to  take  him  out  because  of  his  levity 
and  strange  contortions  of  countenance,  giving 
great  scandal  to  ye  grave  deacons,  and  put  him 
in  ye  lobby  on  ye  stairs.  Some  children  and  a 
mulatto  woman  were  reprimanded  for  laughing 
at  Pomp  Shorter." 


First  Church,  Portland,  Me.  349 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Smith  made  a  note  in  his  diary 
to  the  effect  that  "when  Mr.  Foxcroft  was  or- 
dained at  Gloucester  we  had  a  pleasant  journey 
home.  Mr.  Longfellow  was  alert  and  kept  us  all 
merry.  A  jolly  ordination.  We  lost  sight  of 
decorum."  But  the  New  England  preacher's 
ordination  was  the  end  of  cakes  and  ale  for  him. 
He  usually  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  trying  to 
collect  some  part  of  the  salary  that  had  been  voted 
him. 

It  is  said  there  were  not  three  rich  men  in  the 
town  of  Portland,  yet  Sir  William  Pepperell  and 
Samuel  Sparhawk,  his  son-in-law,  lived  there. 

There  was  a  ferry  kept  by  Lieutenant  Ben- 
jamin Wright  with  whom  it  was  arranged  that 
the  inhabitants  "on  this  side  of  the  river  as 
occasion  calls  for  it,  shall  be  carried  over  to  meet- 
ing without  paying  ferriage."  The  historian  men- 
tions in  conjunction  with  this  enterprise  of  the 
lieutenant's,  "  It  is  noticeable  that  in  early  records 
all  the  minor  military  officers  have  their  titles 
perpetuated.  This  is  according  to  law."  The 
decree  reads,  it  is  "  ordered  that  all  military  officers 
elected  shall  retain  their  titles  ever  after  unless 
they  are  promoted."  Byron  described  military 
glory  as  "  being  shot  through  the  body  and  having 


350  Old  New  England  Churches 

your  name  spelled  wrong  in  the  Gazette.  " 
These  may  have  been  the  conditions  in  England 
but  in  New  England  a  lasting  provision  for  glory's 
perpetuation  was  made. 

We  have  a  description  of  a  certain  remarkable 
interior  of  one  of  these  several  meeting  houses 
belonging  to  the  first  parish: 

"The  pulpit  was  opposite  the  front  entrance 
in  the  middle  length  of  the  house.  It  was  a  for- 
midable looking  structure  painted  white,  re- 
lieved with  green,  and  over  the  standing  place  for 
the  minister  was  the  inevitable  elaborate  sound- 
ing board  of  the  time,  hanging  by  a  rod  from  a 
pineapple  in  the  centre  and  not  more  than  three 
feet  from  the  minister's  head.  .  .  .  The  mas- 
sive timber  of  the  frame  was  of  white  oak  and 
selected  with  as  much  care  as  if  it  was  going  into 
a  frigate." 

William  Goold  in  his  "History  of  Portland" 
presents    his    reminiscences   most    picturesquely: 

"  An  incident  comes  to  my  mind.  In  October, 
1 82 1,  Rev.  Mr.  Payson  (before  he  was  a  D.  D.) 
was  invited  by  the  Portland,  Maine,  Bible  Society 
to  address  the  seamen.  .  .  .  The  seamen  were 
numerous,  and  were  a  much  more  distinct  class 
then  than  now  in  dress  and  manners.  They  did 
not  often  hear  a  sermon.  The  'Old  Jerusalem'  as 
the  memorable  church  was  called,  was  chosen. 
It  was  a  season  in  which  there  were  many  sailors 
in  port  and  an  effort  was  made  to  have  them  fill 


First  Church,  Portland,  Me.  35 1 

the  lower  floor  of  the  church.     All  sailor  board- 
ing house  keepers  were  invited  to  go  with  their 
boarders.     It  was  a  novel  occasion  and  all  went. 
Horatio  G.  Quincy,  a  Universalist,  kept  the  large- 
est  and  best  house — and  it  was  standing  in  Fore 
Street   between   Portland   pier   and   the   custom 
house.     Mr.  Quincy  marshalled  his  own  men,  and 
all  other  sailors  who  would  join  him,  which  made 
a  long  and  remarkable  procession.     Quincy  had 
a   heavy   wooden   leg   and   when   the   procession 
went   through   the   waiting   crowd,    cheers   could 
hardly   be  suppressed,    but  when  that  worthy, 
wounded  man  entered  the  uncarpeted  aisle  with 
his  wooden  stump,  his  well-known  step  awakened 
the   enthusiasm   of   the   audience.     They   forgot 
the  place  and  the  day,  and  gave  a  round  of  ap- 
plause.    The  house  was  packed  as  it  never  had 
been  before.     .     .     .     The  speaker  had  been  de- 
picting the  final  judgment  and  used  this  language: 
Then  our  world,  driven  by  the  last  tempest,  will 
strike  and  be  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  shores  of 
Eternity.     Hark!     What  a  crash!'     At  this  point 
an  excited  sailor  jumped  to  his  feet  and  cried  out, 
'She  has  struck !' which  caused  those  in  the  gal- 
lery to  try  to  look   below,   thinking   the    over- 
crowded galleries  were  giving  way.     A  board  on 
which  several  men  were  standing  broke,   which 
added  further  to  the  panic.     Some  of  the  lower 
window  sashes  were  gotten  up  and  many  jumped 
to   the  ground.     In   the  gallery   many   climbed 
into  the  braces." 

In  1774  the  bell  "tolled  all  day  as  the  harbour 
of  Boston  was  shut  up."     Despite  its  own  trials, 


352  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  bell  continued  to  record  the  vicissitudes  of 
the  country  for  many  a  year.  In  1791  it  was 
"voted  to  recast  the  bell  provided  the  expense 
does  not  exceed  one-half  of  what  it  cost  to  recast 
it  before."  One  historian  says  that  the  sextons 
of  all  other  churches  waited  for  the  bell  of  "Old 
Jerusalem"  to  give  the  first  note.  When  it  gave 
the  alarm  of  fire  no  bell  stopped  ringing  so  long  as 
this  one  continued  to  give  tongue.  It  was  a  veri- 
table aristocrat  of  a  bell. 

There  is  much  personal  history  connected  with 
the  old  meeting  house.  When  at  last  it  was  pulled 
down  the  ordinary  methods  of  razing  did  not  avail, 
and  it  fell  reluctantly  only  after  the  posts  had 
been  sawn  asunder  and  the  heavy  oaken  beams 
cut.  The  local  poet  seems  to  have  got  loose,  but 
we  forgive  him  for  his  apparent  sincerity: 

"FiTe  score  years  it  stood; 
Yes,  they  built  it  well, 
Though  they  built  of  wood ; 
When  that  house  arose, 
For  its  crossbeams  square. 
Oak  and  walnut  fell. 
■"'   '  Little  worse  for  wear,  .\,  :• 

■   ^  Down  the  old  house  goes." 


OLD  NORTH  CHURCH,  PORTSMOUTH, 

N.  H. 


!__ 


CHAPTER  XXII 

Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp- 
shire 

THE  people  of  Portsmouth  established 
themselves  in  the  interests  of  their  trade, 
which  was  fishmongering.  A  church  and  par- 
sonage were  built  without  the  strong  eccle- 
siastical impulse  dominant  elsewhere,  and  Ports- 
mouth was  two  years  behind  New  Haven  and 
several  other  colonies  in  settling  her  minister. 
Twenty  of  the  townsmen  deeded  to  their  church 
wardens  "  50  acres  of  land  for  a  glebe,  "  and  in  1657 
a  substantial  meeting  house  was  built  a  few  rods 
south  of  the  South  mill  dam,  a  hill  being  chosen  for 
the  site.  The  congregation  had  not  been  without 
preachers  during  its  infant  years,  but  these  had 
for  the  most  part  been  itinerant. 

Public  spirit  rather  than  spiritual  enterprise 
seems  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  the  new  meet- 
ing house.  In  1658,  while  the  structure  was  in 
progress,  Joshua  Moodey  was  called  to  the  pulpit. 
If  Portsmouth  had  been  a  long  time  in  arraigning 
itself  with  the  godly  it  did  not  lack  energy  when 

355 


356  Old  New  England  Churches 

the  time  came  for  declaring  itself  on  the  Lord's 
side,  and  it  made  a  cage  of  discipline.  Its  con- 
gregation had  to  be  good,  recognise  the  purpose 
of  the  meeting  house  and  the  function  of  the  new 
minister,  or  forthwith  be  caged.  Those  who  slept 
or  who  took  tobacco  on  the  Lord's  day  through 
the  church  service  were  immediately  placed  be- 
hind bars.  Not  only  were  the  delinquents  of  the 
congregation  thus  treated,  but  over  in  Massachusetts 
the  sauce  for  the  goose  was  mete  for  the  minister, 
in  case  he  absented  himself  a  month  from  public 
worship  and  could  not  pay  his  fine  of  forty  shillings. 
In  these  circumstances  the  preacher  was  "to  be 
set  in  the  cage  or  stocks  not  exceeding  three  hours 
according  to  the  discretion  of  the  church."  Ports- 
mouth's finer  sensibilities  demanded  that  even 
her  stocks  should  be  enclosed  within  a  cage,  and  on 
top  of  the  cage  was  set  the  pillory.  This  extraor- 
dinary machinery  was  to  protect  its  prisoners 
from  being  pelted  with  refuse  while  undergoing 
punishment. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  special  theological 
rigidity  in  Portsmouth  but  much  practical  ex- 
hibition of  a  determined  spirit.  The  rod  was  not 
spared  to  the  spoiling  of  the  congregation,  and 
in  1662  it  is  recorded  that  "a  cage  be  made  or 


Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.      357 

some  other  means  invented  for  such  as  sleepe  on 
the  Lord's  Daie." 

The  church,  here  as  elsewhere,  served  as  a  kind 
of  ledger  for  the  townspeople  who  brought 
wolves'  heads  on  which  to  collect  bounty.  At 
Portsmouth  these  heads  were  nailed  upon  the 
meeting  house  door;  near  by  in  Hampton  parish, 
it  was  ordered  that  they  be  nailed  "to  a  little 
oke  tree  at  the  northeast  end  of  the  meeting 
house."  These  may  have  been  the  superfluous 
heads  that  could  not  find  room  on  the  door. 
Doubtless  wild-cats'  ears  ornamented  the  church 
walls,  since  there  was  also  a  bounty  on  them.  We 
know  Dedham  paid  sixpence  for  "an  inch  and  a 
halfe  of  the  end  of  a  rattle  snake's  tail  with  the 
rattle." 

Portsmouth  had  its  share  of  difficulty  with  its 
boys,  and  if  a  bit  of  town  news  quoted  in  the  New 
Haven  Chronicle  of  March  13,  1787,  establishes 
the  average  of  male  births  we  cannot  but  extend 
our  sympathy  to  that  early  community. 

"There  are  now  living  in  this  town  a  lady  and 
gentleman  who  have  not  been  married  more  than 
twenty  years,  and  yet  have  eighteen  sons;  ten 
of  the  number  are  at  sea,  and  eight  at  home  with 
their  parents." 


358  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  preacher  who  made  church  history  in 
Portsmouth  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moodey,  without 
question  one  of  the  ablest  and  bravest  of  New 
England  divines.  Most  of  these  preachers  had 
ever}-  difficulty  to  contend  with,  except  a  lack  of 
spiritual  zeal;  but  that  was  always  present,  there- 
fore it  became  with  most  of  them  largely  a 
matter  of  formulating  and  regulating  that 
which  existed  so  dominantly.  Mr.  Moodey, 
however,  had  to  be  largely  creative  in  his 
sphere,  but  in  all  probability  Portsmouth 
found  even  a  forced  religious  sentiment  an  advan- 
tage to  the  community.  It  certainly  existed 
more  as  a  luxury  to  be  indulged  in  when  there 
were  time  and  means  for  it,  than  as  a  necessity 
to  be  maintained  before  all  other  things.  That 
first  preacher  must  freqviently  have  gone  into  the 
highways  and  byways  and  compelled  his  people 
to  come  in.  He  must  have  established  that  which 
until  his  coming  had  been  alien  to  them — spiritual 
desire.  He  did  not  even  find  the  tools  of  his 
trade  on  coming  to  Portsmouth.  Professing  Christ- 
ians came  from  elsewhere  in  time,  and  thus  the 
leaven  of  righteousness  was  introduced  into  this 
very  materially  conceived  and  established  church. 
They  came  because  they  could  "  no  longer  satisfy 


Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.      359 

themselves  to  live  without  those  strengthening 
and  satisfying  ordinances  which  their  souls  had 
tasted  the  good  of  in  times  past,  and  others  well 
effected  to  the  work,  professed  their  longings  after 
the  fat  and  marrowed  things  of  God's  house." 

Besides  the  preaching  in  the  church,  house-to- 
house  meetings  were  held  by  these  new-comers. 
Although  the  meeting  house  had  been  built  in 
1658,  it  was  not  until  167 1  that  the  solemn  or- 
dination of  Mr.  Moodey  took  place.  A  deacon 
was  chosen  at  the  same  time.  After  this  we  read 
of  ten  years  of  peace  and  equity  in  Portsmouth, 
during  which  there  were  no  dissensions  in  the 
church  important  enough  to  record ;  but  then  came 
a  conflict  between  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority 
which  temporarily  interfered  with  the  welfare  of 
the  town.  A  member  of  the  church  was  charged 
with  false  swearing  in  some  matter  relating  to  his 
fishing  business.  The  affair  was  hushed  up  and 
the  governor  took  no  action,  but  the  minister  was 
alive  to  his  function  as  spiritual  guide,  judge,  and 
executioner  if  need  be.  In  a  strenuous  sermon 
he  denounced  the  evil  of  false  swearing  and  called 
the  man  to  account.  The  offender  was  not  able 
to  sit  silent  under  this  scathing  arraignment. 
Therefore  he  made  a  public  confession  of  his  guilt. 


360  Old  New  England  Churches 

Governor  Cranfield  was  in  no  mind  to  pardon  this 
independent  action  of  Moodey's  and  he  determined 
to  ruin  the  Portsmouth  preacher.  The  Conform- 
ity Act  of  Charles  II  was  his  opportunity,  and 
in  his  official  capacity  Cranfield  issued  an  edict 
that  "  all  persons  who  desired  it  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the 
lithurgy  of  the  English  Church."  After  having 
this  decree  formally  set  forth,  the  governor  sent 
Moodey  word  that  he  and  two  friends  would,  in 
his  church,  partake  of  the  sacrament  on  the  fol- 
lowing Sabbath.  This  placed  Moodey  on  the 
horns  of  a  dilemma:  account  to  his  governor  or 
account  to  his  God?  There  seems  to  have  been 
no  hesitancy  on  his  part  as  to  which  horn  he  should 
seize.  He  refused  to  receive  the  governor  and 
his  friends,  and  in  turn  was  thrown  into  jail  in 
New  Castle.  One  of  his  little  flock  wrote  patheti- 
cally at  the  time  to  a  citizen  of  the  small  Ports- 
mouth community: 

"Our  menester  lyees  in  prison  and  a  famine 
of  the  word  of  God  comeing  upon  us.  .  .  .  The 
Sabbath  has  come  but  no  preching  at  the  Banke 
motyones  have  been  made  that  Mr.  Moodey  may 
go  up  and  preach  on  the  Lord's  daye  tho'  he  come 
down  to  prison  at  night,  or  that  any  naibor  mini- 
sters might  be  permitted  to  come  and  preach,  or 


Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.      361 

that  the  people  might  come  down  to  the  prison 
and  heare  as  many  as  could,  but  nothing  will  doe. 
Good  Mrs.  Martin  was  buried  being  not  able  to 
live  above  one  Sabbath  after  the  shutting  up  of 
the  doors  of  the  sanctuary." 

The  desolation  of  that  community  without  its 
preacher,  its  utter  dependence  upon  the  spiritual 
rule  for  which  Moodey  stood,  are  perfectly  pre- 
sented by  this  cry  from  one  of  its  citizens. 

Mr.  Moodey  eloquently  wrote  to  a  brother 
minister  imploring  his  assistance  for  his  people : 

"Oh  consider  that  my  poor  flock  have  fasted 
about  forty  days  and  must  be  an  hungered.  Have 
pity  upon  them,  have  pity  upon  them,  O,  thou, 
my  friend,  and  when  you  have  taken  yr  turn  we 
shall  hope  for  some  other.  Let  this  good  work 
for  the  house  of  God  be  done  that  you  may  be 
blessed  of  God  for  good.  You  will  thereby  not 
only  visit  me  in  prison,  but  feed  a  great  multi- 
tude of  the  hungry  and  thirsty  little  ones  in 
Christ,  which  will  be  accounted  for  at  that  day." 

Throughout  New  England  chronicles  there  is 
described  no  more  distressful  situation  than  this  be- 
cause in  no  other  community  was  the  dependence 
on  its  spiritual  head  so  entire  as  it  was  here. 
The  anguish  of  people  and  preacher  are  fairly  and 
impressively  expressed:  Moodey' s  sense  of  being 
needed  and  their  sense  of  need ! 


362  Old  New  England  Churches 

Moodey  was  released  thirteen  weeks  later  on 
condition  that  he  leave  the  colony.  He  went  to 
Boston  and  remained  there  for  ten  years,  but 
his  people  were  never  forgotten  by  him,  and  they 
claimed  his  advice  and  received  it,  as  in  the  former 
days.  It  was  permitted  him  to  return  to  the 
parish  in  1693  and  to  minister  there  for  four  years 
before  he  died.  His  last  words  were:  "The 
life  of  the  churches,  the  life  of  the  churches;  I 
beseech  you  to  look  after  that." 

The  relation  between  Moodey  and  his  parish 
was  more  intimate  than  almost  any  other  we  read 
of  at  that  time.  There  was  a  loving  tenderness, 
a  compelling  humanity  in  all  that  was  said  and 
done.  His  preaching  must  have  been  powerful 
for  we  read  of  families  that  came  many  miles 
through  the  coldest  winters  and  in  the  dreadful 
heat  of  New  England  summers,  regularly,  to  hear 
Moodey  during  all  the  years  of  his  gentle  admin- 
istration. 

The  comfortless  meeting  house,  crude  and 
badly  built,  nevertheless  endured  for  fifty  years, 
but  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  town  decided  to 
build  a  new  house  on  another  comer  of  the  glebe 
land.  Much  local  excitement  and  opposition 
prevailed.     The  town  was  divided,  and  even  while 


Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.       363 

the  building  was  going  up  the  question  was  un- 
settled :  Should  the  new  house  stand  for  the  First 
Church — the  new  minister  Mr.  Rogers,  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  old  pulpit  to  the  new;  or  should 
those  in  favour  of  the  new  house  form  a  new  con- 
gregation and  consider  itself  an  infant  parish  with- 
out history,  without  tradition,  without  martyrs, 
with  naught  but  a  pastor?  At  last  some  sort  of 
an  understanding  was  reached,  Nathaniel  Rogere 
was  moved  from  the  old  house  to  the  new,  and  the 
First  Church  prevailed. 

Following  the  house-warming  came  new  ambi- 
tions to  the  town.  It  must  have  a  clock,  it  must 
have  a  bell;  and  hence  it  was  decided  that  the 
privilege  should  be  granted  to  a  "person  or 
number  of  persons  to  give  a  clock  at  their  own 
cost,  to  set  it  up  in  the  steeple  of  their  Meeting 
house,  so  that  its  hammer  might  strike  on  the  bell." 
Daniel  Pierce  with  several  other  citizens  finally 
made  the  purchase  of  a  clock  and  gave  it  to  the 
town  on  the  25th  of  March,  1749.  The  clock 
struck  the  hours  so  that  the  congregation,  in  a 
single  gift,  acquired  its  twin  wish,  for  clock  and 
bell.  No  other  clock  was  needed  for  many  years, 
but  at  length  Mr.  Simon  Willard  made  a  new  one 
that  did  its  work  faithfully  and  accurately  for  fifty 


364  Old  New  England  Churches 

years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  it  was  pro- 
nounced as  good  as  new.  In  1856,  it  was  deter- 
mined that  the  original  bell  should  be  used  with 
the  comparatively  new  clock,  which  had  told 
time  for  only  half  a  century;  but  the  old  bell  found 
a  watery  grave.  It  was  sent  to  England  for  repairs 
and  lost  on  the  voyage. 

The  second  preacher  of  Portsmouth  church, 
Nathaniel  Rogers,  was  the  son  of  a  president  of 
Harvard  College.  By  that  time  Portsmouth  had  be- 
come distinguished  for  the  elegance  and  splendour 
of  its  living,  its  generosity,  its  hospitality,  and  its 
wealth.  It  may  have  been  its  spiritual  birth 
which  had  reacted  so  splendidly  upon  its  fortunes, 
or  its  well  being  may  have  been  due  to  the  hard- 
headed  trade-instincts  of  its  fishermen-founders, 
but  most  likely  it  was  a  happy  result  of  the  com- 
bination, good  sense  and  spiritual  aspiration.  We 
have  record  of  "cocked  hats  and  gold-headed 
canes,  embroidered  waistcoats  and  gold-laced 
coats,"  which  "glided  up  the  aisles  of  the  old 
meeting  house ;  while  chariots  with  liveried  footmen 
were  standing  at  the  door. ' '  It  was  to  this  new  mag- 
nificence that  Joseph  Buckminster  came  in  1779. 
-  All  the  while  Portsmouth  had  lived  somewhat 
ahead  of  its  time,  and  finally  in  1835  a  new  meet- 


,   \ 


•i'rtt'jWS^ 


j*3ww^iEaiffiii 


Courtesy  of  Rev.  L.  H.  Thayer 
OLD  NORTH  CHURCH,  PORTSMOUTH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
Whose  meeting  house  history  tells  a  story  of  greater  prosperity  than  that  of  any  other  meeting  house  in  New  England 


Old  North  Churchy  Portsmouth,  N.  H.      365 

ing  house  was  to  be  had;  modem  in  style,  quite 
up  to  the  most  exigent  demands  of  its  congre- 
gation. While  the  house  was  not  a  new  structure^ 
it  was  a  completely  remodelled  one.  The  Rev. 
Edwin  Holt  was  the  first  to  occupy  its  pulpit. 
When  it  was  decided,  about  1855,  ^^  rebuild  from 
sill  to  steeple,  not  more  than,  thirty-seven  parish- 
ioners were  needed  to  meet  the  subscription  of 
twenty-four  thousand  dollars,  so  generous  and 
public-spirited  were  the  people  of  the  parish. 

It  is  said  that  no  "  schism  or  fatal  alienation  has 
sprung  up  between  the  members,  though  at  times 
the  religious  character  of  the  church  has  been 
mournfully  low."  In  all  its  history  we  read  of 
fraternity,  energy,  generosity,  public  spirit  and 
a  devotion  to  its  several  preachers,  which  its 
preachers  in  turn  reciprocated. 

At  that  time  was  a  steadily  growing  prosperity, 
and  among  all  New  England  churches  Ports-^ 
mouth's  seemed  to  stand  apart  as  peculiarly  healthy 
and  successful  in  purpose  and  inclination. 


OLD  ST.  JOHN'S  CHURCH,  PORTS- 
MOUTH, N.  H. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

Old    St.  John's    Church,    Portsmouth,    New 

Hampshire 

THE  first  public  worship  in  Portsmouth, 
then  known  as  Strawberry  Bank,  was 
Episcopal,  but  the  finst  parish  was  Puritan. 
Sir  Richard  Gibson  was  the  first  pastor  of  St. 
John's  but  he  was  not  well  liked  by  the  parish, 
if  we  may  judge  by  his  own  statement,  "I  was 
called  by  this  man  a  base  priest,  whereby  I 
was  much  disparaged  in  my  ministry."  There 
seems  to  have  been  nothing  against  Gibson  except 
some  irregularities  in  the  performance  of  mar- 
riages and  baptisms.  In  all  probability  he  acted 
conscientiously  enough  and  the  faults  were  techni- 
cal. There  is  a  deal  of  romance  connected  with 
this  parish  and  it  begins  promptly.  The  church 
was  built  in  1732  and  the  Rev.  Arthur  Browne 
became  at  once  its  rector.  It  was  he  who  married 
Governor  Benning  Wentworth  to  Martha  Hilton, 
the  governor's  housekeeper.  Of  Martha  we  have 
a  picture  made  poetic  by  Longfellow,   and  the 

fact  that  the  governor  married  her  testifies  either 

369 


370  Old  New  England  Churches 

to  her  charms  or  to  his  lack  of  taste.  The  former 
is  the  more  likely,  for  the  governor  no  sooner  died 
than  she  was  wedded  again,  almost  before  her 
mourning  was  wrinkled.  Longfellow  has  immor- 
talised her  thus: 

"'O,  Martha  Hilton,  fie,  how  dare  you  go 
About  the  town  half  dressed  and  loofing  so?' 

At  which  the  gypsy  laughed  and  straight  replied : 
'No  matter  how  1  look;  I  yet  shall  ride 
In  my  own  chariot,  ma'am.'  " 

Rev.  Arthur  Browne  greatly  objected  to  solemnis- 
ing the  governor's  marriage  on  account  of 
the  difference  in  age  between  bride  and  groom; 
but  the  general  unfitness  of  the  match  may  have 
been  the  more  vital  cause.  Governor  Went- 
worth  was  sixty  years  old  on  his  wedding  day  and 
he  revealed  his  intentions  to  the  Rev.  Arthur 
Browne  under  truly  picturesque  circumstances. 
His  birthday  was  being  celebrated  with  magnifi- 
cence and  lavishness.  The  rector  Browne  was 
an  honoured  guest  since  "in  those  days  church 
and  state  were  never  far  apart,  even  on  occasions 
when  each  heartily  disapproved  of  the  other." 
With  the  walnuts  and  the  wine,  or  more  likely, 
with  the  "soldiers'  drink,"  the  girl  slipped  into 
the  room  by  prearrangement  with  the  Governor 
who  arose,  welcomed  her,  and  amazed  his  guests 


Old  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  371 

by  demanding  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Browne  then  and 
there  perform  the  marriage  ceremony.  The  rec- 
tor hesitated  but  the  governor  produced  a  ring, 
placed  it  on  Martha's  finger 

"  .  .  .  .   and  that  was  all : 

Martha  was  Lady  Wentworth  of  the  Hall." 

This  venture  was  fatal  to  the  governor,  for 
he  died  very  soon  after.  Martha  seemed  deter- 
mined to  go  through  the  family,  for  she  next 
married  Michael  Wentworth,  the  governor's 
brother;  and  again  St.  John's  rector  officiated. 

Another  romantic  marriage  recorded  on  the 
register  is  that  of  Col.  Theodore  Atkinson,  Jr.; 
and  in  connection  with  this  name  we  have  much 
more  incident  than  is  associated  with  the  church. 
The  story  of  the  Portsmouth  marriages  has  been 
told  elsewhere  with  much  literary  charm,  and 
need  not  be  particularly  discussed  here  since  it 
bears  only  indirectly  upon  the  church's  history. 
It  was  in  St.  John's  Church  that  Mr.  Rousselet 
began  his  courtship  of  Miss  Catherine  Moffatt. 
He  handed  her  the  Bible  with  the  fifth  verse  of 
the  second  epistle  of  John  underscored: 

"  And  now  I  beseech  thee,  lady,  not  as  though 
I  wrote  a  new  commandment  unto  thee,  but  that 
which  we  had  from  the  beginning,  that  we  love 
one  another." 


372  Old  New  England  Churches 

Whereupon  Miss  Moffatt  indicated  the  first  chap- 
ter of  Ruth,  the  sixteenth  verse: 

"Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go;  and  where  thou 
lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy  people  will  be  my 
people  and  thy  God,  my  God.  Where  thou 
diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried;  the 
Lord  do  so  to  me  and  more  also,  if  aught  but 
death  part  thee  from  me." 

The  site  for  St.  John's  Church  on  Church  Hill 
was  given  to  the  parish  by  an  Englishman,  and 
the  first  structure  was  Queen's  Chapel,  so  named 
in  honour  of  Queen  Caroline.  She,  in  recognition 
of  this  christening,  sent  the  parish  a  Bible,  prayer 
books,  and  a  communion  service.  The  last  is 
still  in  use.  The  Bible  came  to  be  known  as  the 
"vinegar  Bible."  Franklin  Ware  Davis  presents 
its  history  thus: 

"It  was  published  in  17 17  by  John  Basket  of 
Oxford,  the  'King's  printer,'  on  the  best  of  vellum. 
A  mistake  was  made  in  the  guide  line  at  the  head 
of  one  page  in  the  gospels,  and  the  compositor 
made  a  few  volumes  and  his  employer's  name  fa- 
mous ever  after  by  setting  up  the  words  'parable 
of  the  vinegar'  instead  of  'the  vine^^ard.'  Forty 
copies  had  been  struck  off  before  this  was  noticed. 
Of  these  only  four  exist  to-day.  These  are  at 
St.  John's,  Portsmouth;  Christ's  Chuit^h,  Bos- 
ton; Christ  Church,  Philadelphia;  and  the  Len- 
ox Library,  New  York." 


Old  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  373 

Franklin  Davis  gives  us  another  detail  of 
interest.  When  independence  was  declared,  and 
prayers  for  the  English  sovereigns  had  become 
objectionable,  there  was  pasted  over  the  old  ones 
certain  new  forms  of  prayer.  This  was  done  either 
in  a  spirit  of  thrift  or  as  the  result  of  necessity, 
since  probably  new  books  were  unobtainable. 
An  English  officer  in  looking  over  the  prayer  book 
found  the  extraordinary  readjustment  and  in  his 
rage  cut  out  the  page  with  his  sword.  This  is 
not  well  authenticated  but  it  makes  a  good  story, 
and  it  were  a  shame  to  lose  a  good  story  even  if 
one  must  make  poor  history.  St.  John's  bell  has  its 
history  also.  When  Pepperell  stormed  Louis- 
bourg  his  raen  captured  the  bell  which  had  hung 
in  the  French  cathedral.  This  was  presented  to 
Queen's  Chapel  in  1806.  The  chapel  was  burned 
and  the  bell  was  cracked  in  the  heat  but  afterward 
it  was  recast  by  Paul  Revere.  In  1896  it  again 
cracked  and  the  successors  to  the  Paul  Revere  com- 
pany again  recast  it.     It  now  bears  the  words, 

"From  St.  John's  steeple 
I  call  the  people 
On  holy  days 
To  prayer  and  praise.' 

These  lines  were  an  inspiration  of  one  of  the 
Went  worths. 


374  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  "church  dole"  grew  out  of  a  legacy  left 
by  Col.  Theodore  Atkinson  tofiimish  bread  which 
each  Sunday  to  this  day  is  dealt  out  to  the 
poor  of  the  parish.  The  loaves  are  heaped  in 
the  baptismal  font.  The  story  of  Washington's 
visit  to  this  church  in  1789  enriches  its  history. 
He  wrote  of  the  event  in  his  diary  Nov.  i,  1789: 

"Attended  by  the  President  of  State  (Gen. 
Sullivan),  Mr.  Langdon,  and  the  marshall,  I  went 
in  the  forenoon  to  the  Episcopal  church  under  the 
incumbency  of  Mr.  Ogden;  and  in  the  afternoon 
to  one  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Congregational 
churches  in  which  a  Mr.  Buckminster  preached." 

Upon  that  occasion  the  President  was  clothed  in 
black  velvet,  ornate  with  jewelled  buckles.  Es- 
corted to  Queen's  Chapel  he  entered  Governor 
Went  worth's  pew,  which  was  newly  equipped  for 
the  occasion  with  red  plush  curtains  while  a 
wooden  canopy  above  it  bore  the  royal  arms. 
Washington  sat  in  one  of  the  two  chairs  given  by 
Queen  Caroline  to  St.  John's— which  would 
seem  to  be  the  irony  of  fate.  Later,  when 
the  chapel  was  burned,  one  of  these  chairs 
was  destroyed.  Since  tradition  when  in  doubt 
always  plays  the  trump  of  romance,  it  is 
stated   that   the   chair   preserved    was    the   one 


Old  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  375 

Washington  sat  in,  but  there  is  no  certainty 
of  this  because  when  one  was  destroyed  its 
counterpart  was  made  at  once  and  no  distin- 
guishing mark  was   placed  upon  either. 

St.  John's  church  at  one  time  tried  to  rid  itself 
of  an  objectipnable  rector.  The  congregation 
decided  that  he  ought  to  resign,  but  instead  of 
conducting  the  matter  in  a  suave  and  unobtrusive 
manner  a  parish  meeting  was  called.  It  came  to 
naught  and  a  second  meeting  was  called  a  week 
later.  The  rector,  learning  that  a  disposition  was  to 
be  made  of  him  of  which  he  was  not  expected  to 
approve,  decided  to  have  a  hand  in  the  matter; 
and  when  the  meeting  convened  the  objectionable 
rector  was  found  to  be  in  the  chair  ready  to  pre- 
side at  his  own  funeral.  The  situation  must  have 
been  embarrassing  for  both  parties,  certainly  for 
the  parish ;  but  one  of  the  wardens,  much  flustered, 
jumped  up  and  demanded  of  the  chairman,  "  Ain't 
there  any  possible  way  to  get  rid  of  a  minister 
when  the  parish  don't  want  him?" 

The  chairman  replied  tranquilly,  "  I  don't  know 
that  there  is."  This  was  too  much  for  the  warden 
and  he  tearfully  shouted,  "  He  hain't  got  no  human 
heart  in  him." 

Having  impressed  his  parish  that  he  could  do 


376  Old  New  England  Churches 

as  he  pleased,  the  reverend  gentleman  finally 
withdrew  and  sought  another  church. 

On  the  morning  before  Christmas,  1806,  Queen's 
Chapel  was  burned  down  and  the  members  of 
St.  John's  parish  were  housed  with  those  of  the 
North  meeting  house.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Buck- 
minster  of  the  North  Church  preached  the  Christ- 
mas sermon  to  the  united  congregations,  using  the 
text,  *'Our  holy  and  beautiful  house,  where  our 
fathers  praised  thee,  is  burned  up  with  fire." 
To  the  new  church  which  was  immediately  built 
and  called  St.  John's,  Trinity  Church  of  Boston 
contributed  one  thousand  dollars. 

St.  John's  has  had  its  place  in  fiction,  for  Sarah 
Ome  Jewett  describes  it  in  "  The  Country  Doctor." 
The  credence  table  is  made  of  wood  which  was 
once  a  part  of  the  United  States  frigate  Hartford, 
the  flagship  of  Admiral  Farragut  at  the  capture  of 
New  Orleans.  The  church's  equipment  has  come 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  font  being  a  trophy 
taken  by  Colonel  Tom  Mason  from  the  French 
at  the  capture  of  Senegal.  Tradition  has  it 
that  the  French  had  stolen  it  from  a  heathen 
temple. 

The  "Brattle  organ"  once  owned  by  Thomas 
Brattle,  was  imported  from  London  in  17 13.     It 


Old  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  377 

was  originally  left  to  Brattle  Street  Church  in 
Boston  and  was 

"  Given  and  devoted  to  the  praise  and  worship 
of  God  in  the  said  church,  if  they  shall  accept 
thereof  and  within  a  year  after  my  decease,  pro- 
cure a  sober  person  who  can  play  skilfully  thereon 
with  a  loud  noise." 

Brattle  Street  Church  did  not  comply  with  the 
conditions,  lacking  either  a  man  of  sobriety  or 
one  who  could  make  a  loud  noise,  and  the  organ 
went  to  King's  Chapel,  and  afterward  to  St. 
Paul's  in  Newburyport.  It  did  service  there 
for  eighty  years,  and  finally  in  1836  St.  John's 
became  its  home. 

In  St.  John's  burying  ground  lie  all  the  Went- 
worths  and  their  families,  with  the  exceDtion  of 
the  last  generation. 

An  amusing  story  is  told  of  one  of  St.  John's 
rectors.  Dr.  Burroughs,  at  a  little  village  called^ 
Gosport  on  the  Isle  of  Shoals,  a  favourite  summer- 
ing place,  where  he  was  in  the  habit  of  going  for 
the  hot  months.  On  one  occasion  he  remained  four 
weeks,  and  as  the  little  church  was  unused,  the 
village  having  no  pastor,  the  Reverend  Doctor, 
wishing  to  do  a  graceful  act,  preached  in  it  for 
four  Sundays.     The  time  came  for  his  departure 


378  Old  New  England  Churches 

and  no  vote  of  thanks  had  reached  him.  He  at- 
tributed this  to  an  oversight ;  but  as  he  was  about 
to  enter  the  boat  which  was  to  take  him  from  the 
island,  a  boy  came  running  down  to  the  dock 
waving  a  piece  of  paper  that  looked  to  the  Doctor 
as  if  it  might  be  the  delayed  vote  of  thanks.  He 
began  to  consider  a  suitable  reply  to  send  back, 
but  when  he  opened  the  paper  he  found  it  to  be 
a  bill  for  the  use  of  the  church  for  the  four  Sundays. 
The  good  Doctor  meekly  paid  and  meekly  de- 
parted. 

We  have  on  the  records  of  this  church  much 
that  is  unique ;  for  example  an  entry  of  a  death : 
"  An  infant   child,    aged  three  weeks,  unbaptised 

of  Mr. &  wife  of  sore  mouth  and  fits";  there 

are  a  good  many  unquotable  items  which  have 
reference  to  disease  and  death. 

Old  St.  John's  has  more  legendary  history  than 
any  other  church  in  New  England.  The  curfew 
was  still  rung  and  the  church  still  sentinelled, 
ten  years  ago  in  picturesque  and  primitive  Ports- 
mouth town. 


FIRST  CHURCH,  DOVER,  N.  H. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
First  Church,  Dover,  New  Hampshire 

DOVER  was  the  first  settlement  in  the  state  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  seventeen  years  after 
its  beginning  at  the  "Neck,"  "the  inhabitants  of 
Dover,  having  siiifered  much  from  great  irregu- 
larity in  their  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs,"  sub- 
mitted itself  to  the  laws  of  England.  The  next 
year  they  decided  "  to  be  ruled  and  ordered  in  all 
cases,  civil  and  criminal,  and  to  be  subject  to  pay 
in  church  and  commonwealth  as  the  inhabitants 
of  Massachusetts  pay."  Thus  they  fell  under  the 
administration  of  Massachusetts. 

The  first  Congregational  church  in  Dover  was 
established  in  1638,  probably  some  time  in  Novem- 
ber. Unlike  the  churches  of  many  of  the  other 
colonies  this  one  was  organised  by  a  little  company 
who  had  come  to  this  country  unhampered  or 
unsustained,  by  religious  views  and  theories. 
They  were  a  little  company  of  fishermen  whose 
time  was  given  over  to  catching  and  selling; 
but    they    brought    with    them    a    pastor,    the 

Rev.  William  Leveridge,  and  they  by  no  means 

381 


382  Old  New  England  Churches 

regarded  spiritual  affairs  inconsequently.  The  im- 
migrant preacher  did  not  remain  long  with  the 
colonists  but  removed  to  Boston. 

An  elevated  site  was  chosen  for  the  first  meeting 
house  and  it  was  "beautiful  for  situation";  but 
like  other  structures  of  those  days  it  was  of  logs 
and  mud,  probably  not  "daubed  over  workman- 
like." Dover  had  lived  for  fifteen  years  after  its 
settlement  without  a  meeting  house. 

The  first  preacher  of  the  organised  church  was 
the  Rev.  Hansard  Knollys.  In  all  probability 
he  was  not  severe  enough  to  control  these  prac- 
tically-minded men,  who  seemed  so  much  less 
spiritually  developed  than  their  neighbours.  In 
short  it  was  the  misfortune  of  these  early  Dover- 
ites  to  have  in  ecclesiastical  control  men  who  were 
more  or  less  divided  between  their  theological 
responsibilities  and  things  mundane,  but  Mr. 
Knollys  must  have  been  a  man  of  considerable 
force  of  one  kind  or  another  since  he  created  con- 
siderable disturbance. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  their  church  rule, 
the  good  people  of  Dover  found  it  necessary  to 
establish  a  strict  guardianship  over  their  preachers, 
but  they  met  with  better  fortune  when  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Maud  came.     He  remained  their  preacher 


FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH,  DOVER,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
Which  is  almost  the  only  early  Colonial  church  of  the  Puritans  whose  record  is  without  the  blot  of  witchcraft 


First  Church,  Dover,  N.  H.  383 

for  many  years.  The  best  that  has  been  said  of 
the  early  ministers  who  tentatively  occupied  this 
pulpit  is  that  they  died  in  the  odour  of  sanctity, 
but  it  is  certain  that  Daniel  Maud  also  lived  thus. 
The  town  records  of  1642  declare  that 

"Mr.  Maud  and  his  wife  do  enjoy  the  house  in 
which  they  then  lived  during  their  lives,  provided 
he  continued  as  a  teacher  or  pastor,  and  if  it 
please  God  to  call  him  to  it," 

and  more  than  this  he  received  nearly  two  hundred 
dollars  a  year.  Dr.  Mather  represents  Mr.  Maud 
as  the  first  strictly  convenable  divine  of  the  Dover 
church,  and  reckons  him  among  the  most  in- 
fluential crusaders  in  the  wilderness. 

Between  1647  ^'^^  1662  the  church  reckoned 
among  its  elders  a  Wentworth,  parent  to  the  gover- 
nors of  that  name.  At  that  time  affairs  at  Dover 
were  settled  by  arbitration.  This  method  of 
adjusting  a  settlement  of  local  disagreements  was 
not  uncommon,  but  it  was  customary  here  to 
choose  three  or  more  Dover  citizens  each  year 
to  settle  difficulties  between  citizens.  The  custom 
speaks  with  a  loud  voice  for  that  individual  in- 
tegrity which  could  command  the  confidence  of 
a  whole  people. 

Dover  escaped  the  blot  of  witchcraft  history  but 


384  Old  New  England  Churches 

it  has  much  of  intolerance  to  record.  The  Quakers 
were  treated  with  great  severity.  The  citizens 
whipped  "three  travelling  Quaker  women"  out 
of  town  and  also  gave  thirty  stripes  at  the  cart's 
tail  to  Edward  Wharton.  These  stripes  were 
judiciously  distributed — ten  in  each  of  three 
towns — ^before  the  unhappy  Quaker  finally  reached 
his  home  in  Salem,  where  probably  he  was  hanged 
as  a  witch.  But  in  their  atrocities  the  colonists 
were  conscientious,  because  "  the  prevalent  opinion 
in  most  sects  in  that  day  was,  that  tolerance 
was  sinful." 

The  Dover  church  was  the  last  church  in  New 
England  to  give  up  the  apostolic  practice  of 
baptising  the  children  of  communicants  only. 
Later,  with  other  churches,  it  formed  the  "half- 
way covenant"  plan.  Then  came  the  frightful 
massacre  on  the  28th  of  June,  1689.  Friday 
was  indeed  a  fatal  day  to  these  fishermen 
settlers,  for  upon  that  day  full  fifty  people  were 
killed  or  taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians.  Mr. 
Pike  was  the  next  preacher,  and  his  early  dis- 
missal did  not  advance  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  unhappy  settlement.  He  had  no  impedi- 
ment of  soul,  but  alas,  he  was  uncertain  of  speech 
and  confusing  to  the  people  of  Dover.     But  spirit- 


First  Church,  Dover,  N,  H.  385 

ual  prosperity  was  at  hand,  and  a  new  epoch  in 
the  history  of  Dover  arrived  when  the  Rev.  Jona- 
than Gushing  came  to  preach.  By  this  time  there 
were  churches  in  the  nearby  towns  of  Somers- 
worth,  Harrington,  Durham,  Lee,  and  Newington 
— offshoots  from  the  town  of  Dover — which  main- 
tained a  sort  of  family  supervision  among  them- 
selves. It  is  said  that  they  spent  much  time  in 
"  watching  over  each  other  and  admonishing  each 
other  in  the  Lord."  Even  during  Mr.  Cushing's 
ministry  we  find  the  independent,  liberty-loving 
Doverites  wandering  far  from  ministerial  gui- 
dance; though  there  is  considerable  disciplining 
recorded  in  this  administration. 
It  is  noted 

"that  in  the  days  of  Mr.  Gushing  there  was  a 
deacon  in  the  church  by  the  name  of  John  Hayes. 
There  is  now  a  John  Hayes,  deacon  of  this  church, 
but  what  is  more  remarkable,  that  same  John 
Hayes  and  that  same  Rev.  J.  Gushing  were  both 
great  grandfathers  of  our  John  Hayes  and  were 
both  also  great  grandfathers  to  Brother  Peter 
Gushing  at  present  a  deacon  in  this  church." 

This  coincidence  was  discussed  in  a  Thanksgiving 
sermon  in  1838. 

The  Dover  church  rejoiced  in  an  historian  when 
Dr.  Belknap  came  to  its  pulpit.     It  was  in  his  day 


386  Old  New  England  Churches 

that  a  privilege,  which  long  continued  to  be  given 
to  preachers,  was  established.  He  demanded  four 
Sabbaths  of  each  year  to  himself  "during  which 
he  might  be  absent  from  his  people  and  devote 
the  time  to  journeying  or  to  any  purpose  which 
might  please  him."  This  may  have  been  a  plea 
for  the  indulgence  of  his  literary  pursuits,  but  we 
cannot  regret  that  he  arrogated  four  weeks  in  the 
year  to  himself  on  any  account.  So  modest  a  re- 
quest, so  momentously  recorded,  reveals  how 
persistently  those  early  preachers  laboured.  The 
reverend  man  deserves  to  be  remembered  as  much 
for  the  humane  precedent  he  established  as  for 
his  history  of  New  Hampshire. 

One  of  Dover's  parish  historians  declares  that 
during  Dr.  Belknap's  ministry 

"A  firm  attachment  to  evangelical  truth  and 
a  spirit  of  loving  piety,  the  two  essential  con- 
stituents to  the  religious  prosperity  of  any  people 
appear  not  to  have  been  remarkably  prominent." 

However  this  may  be,  there  was  during  this  time 
a  deal  less  of  punishment,  censure,  and  internal 
dissension  in  Dover  than  in  the  other  more  strictly 
spiritual  communities.  After  Mr.  Belknap  left 
came  a  season  of  pulpit  disturbances.  Either 
the  preachers  who  sought  the  parish  assumed  too 


First  Church,  Dover,  N.  H.  387 

liberal  an  attitude  toward  morals  or  else  Dover 
was  too  exacting,  because  again  and  again  the 
pulpit  was  badly  supplied  and  preachers  came 
and  went  with  irritating  frequency. 

With  the  probable  exception  of  Exeter  church 
the  Dover  church  is  the  oldest  in  ail  New  Hamp- 
shire, but  it  has  been  the  least  fortunate.  By 
1838,  on  its  one  hundredth  anniversary,  fifteen 
ministers  had  filled  its  pulpit,  but  only  five  of 
these  seem  to  have  met  the  spiritual  requirements. 
A  pledge  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  "  ardent  spirits 
.  .  .  and  from  the  traffic  of  the  same"  be- 
came a  suggestive  condition  of  church  member- 
ship, but  we  do  not  hear  of  casualties  from  drunk- 
enness in  Dover  such  as  were  attendant  upon  the 
"raring  of  the  meeting  hous"  in  man}^  of  the 
colonies  where  rum  was  one  of  the  perquisites. 

In  1833  signs  of  the  "  intrenchments  and  flan- 
kerts"  which  surrounded  the  first  Dover  church 
were  still  to  be  seen.  Near  to  that  meeting  house 
they  built  the  gaol,  and  the  church  itself  was  used 
both  for  worship  and  for  the  transaction  of  town 
business. 

Here  as  elsewhere  the  drum  was  beaten  to  call 
the  folks  to  meeting,  and  Richard  Pinkome  was 
the  citizen  who  was  "ordered  to  beat  the  drum 


388  Old  New  England  Churches 

for  meeting  on  the  Lord's-day."  There  was  a 
very  excellent  and  practical  reason  for  this  use  of 
the  drum  in  preference  to  the  bell  in  those  ever 
warlike  times.  Horns  and  conch  shells,  drums 
and  rattles,  were  more  in  consonance  with  the 
wild  unformed  conditions,  and  less  characteristic- 
ally evident,  when  Indian  bands  waited  only  for 
opportunity  to  fall  upon  a  community  unawares. 
The  bell  in  such  times  would  have  seemed  a  direct 
challenge  to  destruction. 

The  old  walls  of  the  First  Church  doubtless 
witnessed  an  extraordinary  exhibition  when  the 
ecclesiastical  quarrel  between  Knollys  and  Lark- 
ham  took  place.  On  that  occasion  Knollys,  the 
Puritan  preacher,  marched  to  the  court  room, 
which  was  in  all  probability  the  meeting  house, 
armed  with  a  rifle  and  bearing  a  Bible  "mounted 
on  a  halberd  for  an  ensign."  Larkham  and  his 
followers  did  not  accept  this  challenge  but  called 
upon  the  people  of  Portsmouth  for  assistance. 
This  could  not  be  rendered  because  Dover  was 
not  in  its  jurisdiction,  but  the  governor  came  up 
in  a  boat  with  an  armed  party  to  the  rescue  of 
Larkham.  Eventually  three  men,  of  whom  Hugh 
Peters  the  famous  Salem  preacher,  was  one,  be- 
came a  commission  appointed  by  the  Governor 


First  Church,  Dover,  N.  H.  389 

of  Massachusetts  to  settle  this  dispute.  Their 
finding  was  a  tolerant  one,  in  that  they  decided 
both  parties  were  at  fault,  and  the  excommunica- 
tion of  the  one  and  the  fines  and  banishment  of 
the  other  were  revoked;  thus  they  hoped  to  re- 
store peace. 

The  original  meeting  house  witnessed  another 
picturesque  incident  when  the  Doverites  declined 
to  recognise  the  agents  of  foreign  proprietors. 
They  refused  to  be  taxed  and  persisted  in  cutting 
down  trees  that  bore  the  arrowheads — signs  of 
the  absentee  owner.  Their  resistance  was  extremely 
spirited,  and  when  warrants  were  issued  against 
the  offenders,  and  the  sheriff  and  his  forces  tried 
to  seize  them  at  church,  a  tremendous  riot  arose 
which  interrupted  the  sermon.  A  liberty-loving 
woman  hurled  the  Bible  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
officers  with  such  certain  aim  that  it  knocked  him 
down  and  fairly  stopped  the  proceedings.  In- 
deed the  sheriff  and  his  posse  were  so  badly  treated 
that  we  read  '*  they  were  glad  to  escape  with  their 
lives." 

The  early  fortification  about  this  meeting  house 
was  of  logs  built  upon  an  earthen  intrench- 
ment,  and  at  the  diagonal  comers  there  was 
some  sort  of  circular  tower — doubtless  sentinelled 


390  Old  New  England  Churches 

— the  remains  of  which  can  still  be  seen.  From 
those  towers  the  watcher,  in  his  strange  armour 
(probably  the  ordinary  "  coat  basted  with  cotton- 
wool") could  sweep  the  river,  the  houses  on  the 
Cocatco  bank,  and  have  all  the  region  beyond, 
on  the  Maine  shore,  in  full  sight.  The  heads  of 
families  marched  to  meeting  armed,  and  the  guns 
were  stacked  in  the  church  entry.  Onslaughts 
were  frequent  and  more  than  once  the  service  was 
interrupted  by  the  sentinel's  call,  whereupon  the 
whole  congregation  went  forth  to  battle  and  many 
were  picked  off  by  single  shots  as  they  left  the 
meeting  house.  But  it  was  Dover's  own  treacher- 
ous treatment  of  the  Indians  which  brought  upon 
it  much  of  the  evil  warfare. 

One  minister  of  this  early  church  was  also  gover- 
nor of  the  plantation.  Town  and  church  records 
were  identical  but  there  was  not  that  interdepen- 
dence of  church  and  state  in  the  Dover  settle- 
ment which  was  to  be  found  in  the  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut  colonies. 

We  read  of  a  new  meeting  house  in  1655 — 
built  on  the  site  of  the  old  one — which  was  "16 
feet  stud,  with  6  windows,  12  doores  fitt  for 
such  a  house,  with  a  tile  covering  and  all  the 
walls  planck."     But  in  1758,  in  Jonathan  Cush- 


First  Church,  Dover,  N.  H.  391 

ing's  time,  the  third  meeting  house  was  built.  The 
northern  end  was  rebuilt  into  a  dwelling  house 
and  sold;  then  in  1829  came  the  fourth  house. 
Dover  knew  much  of  vicissitude  and  perhaps 
not  much  of  spirituality,  but  with  that  brute  force 
and  human  assurance  which  accounts  for  most  col- 
onial success,  she  finally  lived,  moved,  and  had  an 
orderly  being. 


FIRST  CHURCH,  CONCORD,  N.  H. 


>  T      i/f     f 


CHAPTER  XXV 
First  Church,  Concord,  New  Hampshire 

IN  CONCORD  the  conditions  of  the  township 
grant  declared  "  that  a  convenient  house  for 
the  worship  of  God  be  completely  finished  within 
the  time  aforesaid  [three  years]  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  all  such  as  shall  inhabit  the  aforesaid 
tract  of  land."  The  first  public  assembly  was  for 
the  purpose  of  worship,  and  this  was  on  May  15, 
1726.  There  were  two  services  on  that  day  at 
Sugar  Ball  Plain,  where  those  that  had  come  to 
survey  the  township,  some  of  the  proprietors  and 
a  committee  of  the  General  Court,  were  in  camp; 
and  it  was  also  immediately  "agreed  and  voted, 
that  a  block  house  ...  be  built  at  Penny 
Cook  for  security  of  the  settlers."  At  the  same 
time  a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to  super- 
vise the  erection  of  this  house,  and  the  structure 
was  to  be  used  primarily  for  defence,  as  the  word- 
ing of  the  vote  indicates;  but  as  was  usual  in 
these  settlements,  it  was  to  serve  a  double  pur- 
pose, and  thus  were  fulfilled  the  two  conditions  of 

the  land  grant. 

395 


396  Old  New  England  Churches 

This  first  place  of  worship  and  fort  combined 
was  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  forest;  windows 
high  from  the  ground  for  the  better  security  of 
those  within;  built  of  logs  and  with  an  earthen 
floor.  The  grist  mill  and  the  saw  mill,  those  two 
most  important  structures  of  early  New  England, 
did  not  come  until  after  this  church-fort  was 
built.  A  couple  of  years  later  Concord  under- 
took to  improve  the  interior  because  the  inhabi- 
tants expected  "a  learned  orthodox  minister" 
to  settle  among  them. 

The  settlement  at  that  time  was  the  geographical 
limit  of  New  World  civilisation,  and  the  church 
marked  the  frontier. 

In  all  probability  the  surveyors  and  proprietors 
who  encamped  here  at  the  earliest  date  completed 
the  chiirch-fort  structure,  and  had  all  in  readiness 
for  the  settlers  before  they  came.  Jacob  Shute  says 
"that  in  the  fall  of  the  year  1727  "  he  assisted  in 
moving  up  the  first  family  that  settled  at  Penny 
Cook,  and  that  he  there  found  a  meeting  house 
built.  In  Concord  history  this  is  called  the  second 
meeting  house  but  it  was  probably  the  first  struc- 
ture given  over  entirely  to  the  worship  of  God. 
The  women  of  the  parish  did  their  part  when  it 
came  to  the  days  of  the  meeting  house  "raring," 


First  Church,  Concord,  N.  H.  397 

by  furnishing  the  men  engaged,  with  "such  re- 
freshments as  the  nature  of  the  arduous  work 
required."  The  house  had  neither  steeple  nor 
chimney. 

There  was  no  organised  town  government  in 
Concord  at  the  time,  so  that  the  church  had  to  be 
built  by  individuals  organised  for  the  purpose, 
and  they  were  called  the  Proprietors  of  the  Meet- 
ing House. 

The  settling  of  Concord  has  its  unique  phase. 
The  proprietary  right  to  the  land  was  under  dis- 
pute and  the  point  was  not  settled  for  years.  It 
was  necessary  in  order  to  colonise  there  at  all  that 
men  who  believed  in  what  they  were  doing  and 
who  had  the  courage  to  maintain  their  rights,  as 
they  understood  them,  should  become  the  settlers. 
They  had  to  have  faith  in  their  own  judgment  and 
yet  be  willing  to  take  chances  on  having  their 
investment  one  day  rendered  futile  and  possibly 
a  dead  loss  to  them.  They  had  to  be  men  of  some 
means  and  of  undoubted  moral  courage  in  order 
to  cope  with  this  situation.  Therefore,  both  as 
men  of  property  and  men  of  character,  those  of 
this  settlement  of  Concord  were  somewhat  excep- 
tional. It  was  not  until  thirteen  years  had  passed 
that  Concord  was  confident  of  what  she  owned. 


398  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  preacher  who  had  the  parish  in  1764  left 
a  diary  which  suggests  the  new  Hfe,  the  new  im- 
petus toward  development  that  the  town  received 
when  at  last  "the  Bow  controversy"  was  settled. 
This  man  writes: 

''April  20.  Set  out  20  apple  trees  in  ye  Island 
orchard  and  in  ye  Joel  orchard."  ''April  23. 
Bot  40  apple  trees  of  Philip  Eastman,  brot.  ym 
home  and  set  ym  out."  "April  24.  Set  out 
about  60  young  apple  trees  in  ye  house  lot." 
"May  2.  Set  out  eight  elm  trees  about  my  house." 
"June  17,  1782.  Voted  to  finish  the  meeting 
house  in  said  Concord."  "Voted  that  the  com- 
mittee consist  of  three."  "Voted  that  Colonel 
Timothy  Walker,  Mr.  Robert  Harris,  and  Mr. 
Joseph  Hall  be  a  committee  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid' ' ; 

and  about  that  time  it  was  decided  that  the  town 
should  purchase  the  interest  of  the  proprietors 
in  the  meeting  house. 

In  the  course  of  time  (about  1783)  we  have  an 
account  of  a  fine  flamboyant  structure.  We 
know  there  was  a  belfry  and  a  steeple,  and  on  the 
spire  was  a  gilt  weathercock  made  of  copper  which 
weighed  fifty-six  pounds  and  was  four  feet  high. 
It  had  glass  eyes  and  a  superabundance  of  tail 
and  "it  always  looked  ready  for  a  fight,  eccles- 
iastical or  civil."     Upon  the  belfry  ceiling  the 


First  Church,  Concord,  N.  H.  399 

thirty-two  points  of  the  compass  were  boldly 
painted  in  fine  primitive  colours.  Here  as  else- 
where, the  seats  were  hinged  and  were  emphati- 
cally banged  down  at  the  preacher's  "Amen." 
There  was  a 

"Pretentious  sounding  board,  of  elaborate 
workmanship,  as  curious  of  design  as  it  was  inno- 
cent of  utility.  .  .  .  The  pulpit  was  reached  by 
a  flight  of  stairs  on  the  left  side,  ornamented  by 
ballusters  of  curious  patterns,  three  of  which, 
each  differing  from  the  others,  stood  upon  each 
step  and  supported  the  rail.  The  pulpit,  striped 
stair  carpet,  the  red  silk  damask  cushion  upon 
which  rested  the  big  Bible,  blazing  in  scarlet  and 
gold.  ...  At  the  foot  of  the  public  stairs 
stood  a  short  mahogany  pillar  upon  which  on 
baptismal  occasions  was  placed  the  silver  font." 

When  the  choir  sang  the  singers  were  concealed 
behind  a  red  curtain.  When  they  ceased  the 
curtain  was  opened.  There  is  perhaps  no  other 
record  of  so  frank  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
painful.  The  Concord  meeting  house  shut  out 
from  view  the  facial  contortions  of  a  country 
choir,  permitting  it  to  reveal  itself  only  when  all 
was  said  and  sung. 

The  first  indication  we  have  of  class  distinction 
in  Concord  is  a  record  of  an  application  made  by 
Mr.  James  Scales  for  the  privilege  of  building  a 


400  Old  New  England  Churches 

pew,  and  this  he  was  permitted  to  do  "  in  the  one- 
half  of  the  hindermost  seat  at  the  west  end  of  the 
meeting  house  that  is  next  the  window." 

The  old  men  of  the  congregation  sat  apart  in  a 
place  provided  for  them  at  the  base  of  the  pulpit, 
and  wore  a  sort  of  uniform — ^white  linen  caps  in 
summer  and  red  woolen  caps  in  winter.  In  Con- 
cord the  Sabbath  meeting  was  quite  as  much  a 
social  event  as  it  was  a  spiritual  indulgence.  Bou- 
ton's  history  describes  how  intimately  the  persons, 
not  only  of  Concord  but  of  the  outlying  towns, 
knew  each  other.  Here  they  met  on  a  Sunday, 
convening  doubtless  at  the  noon  hour,  when  they 
gossiped  together  until  the  second  service,  ex- 
changing news  from  all  parts.  The  meeting  house 
was  also  a  place  where  military  orders  were  given 
and  received.  Captain  Joseph  Walker's  cavalry 
command  dwelt  in  Concord  and  its  outlying  vil- 
lages, and  there  on  Sundays  he  transmitted  to  his 
men  orders  when  and  where  to  meet,  what  to  do, 
and  how  to  do  it.  Down  under  a  tree  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  hill,  west  of  Richard  Bradley's,  history 
has  it  that  the  boys  and  young  men  stopped  to 
put  on  their  shoes  of  a  Sabbath,  and  the  young 
women  to  put  on  clean  white  stockings  after  com- 
ing from  a  distance  and  before  entering  the  meet- 


First  Church,  Concord,  N.  H.  401 

ing  house — not  an  aesthetic  scene  but  a  very 
picturesque  one.  The  horse  block  on  the  west 
side  of  the  meeting  house  served  the  women  for 
mounting  and  dismounting  from  the  pilhons  on 
which  they  rode  behind  their  husbands,  and 
those  who  used  the  block  paid  for  it  at  the  rate 
of  a  pound  of  butter  apiece.  When  the  long- 
wished-for  bell,  which  weighed  twelve  hundred 
pounds,  was  finally  put  into  the  belfry,  the  whole 
valley  rejoiced,  and  the  year  after  its  acquisition 
it  was  ordered  to  be  rung  thrice  a  day  for  seven 
Sundays — at  seven  o'clock,  at  noon,  and  at  nine 
of  the  clock  at  night. 

Concord  salaries  were  always  magnificent.  The 
first  bellringer,  Sherbum  Wiggin,  received  twenty- 
five  dollars  a  year,  and  modem  business  methods 
prevailed,  for  he  was  required  to  give  a  bond  for 
the  faithful  performance  of  his  duty.  There  was 
one  reversal,  however,  of  present  methods:  val- 
uable offices  were  annually  sold  to  the  lowest 
instead  of  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  sexton's 
salary  increased  sixty  per  cent,  in  eight  years, 
which  indicates  a  relatively  fine  increase  in  the 
town's  prosperity.  The  second  house  was  en- 
larged in  1828,  many  changes  being  made  inside 
and  the  whole  structure  greatly  improved.     Then  a 


402  Old  New  England  Churches 

strange  thing  happened.  Though  enlarged  to 
meet  the  pressing  need  of  room  it  was  found  that 
almost  at  once  the  congregation  began  to  dimin- 
ish. This  was  simply  a  coincidence,  several  other 
religious  societies  having  been  formed  which  drew 
many  from  that  first  church.  The  new  and 
mightier  structure  seemed  so  bamlike  and  com- 
fortless that  they  built  again  in  order  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  a  cosy  house.  Concord 
people  were  able  to  build,  to  move  in,  to  move 
out,  and  do  pretty  much  as  they  pleased  by  rea- 
son of  their  opulence  and  uncomplicated  way 
of  thinking.  A  cheerful  people  met  in  the  old 
house  to  say  farewell  before  they  moved  into 
the  new. 

In  the  second  meeting  [house  all  sorts  of  assem- 
blies were  held  that  have  had  significance  in  state 
history.  The  convention  which  was  to  plan 
some  sort  of  government  for  New  Hampshire 
met  there.  The  first  legislature  for  Concord 
assembled  in  this  house,  and  there  also  were  held 
no  less  than  fifteen  sessions  of  the  General 
Court.  The  first  legislature  had  to  adjourn  to 
another  building  because  the  church  was  too  cold, 
and  one  historian  very  neatly  describes  the  sit- 
uation: 


First  Church,  Concord,  N.  H.  403 

"If  in  winter  the  cold  in  God's  house  was  in- 
tense, they  shrugged  their  shoulders,  worked 
their  toes,  and,  so  far  as  they  could,  got  carnal 
warmth  from  the  fervour  of  their  devotions. 
But  it  must  have  been  very  chilly  for  the  ungodly 
on  such  occasions.  That  at  the  noon  intermis- 
sion some  have  sought  spiritual  invigoration  at 
Hanaford's  Tavern  nearby,  may  have  been  in- 
excusable, but  it  was  not  inconsistent  with  the 
native  depravity  of  that  time." 

However,  if  the  church  was  cold.  Concord  hos- 
pitality was  very  warm  indeed.  There  is  a  tradi- 
tion that  Colonel  Timothy  Walker,  a  member  of 
the  legislature  at  Concord,  told  other  members 
who  were  complaining  of  their  boarding  houses 

"That  if  the  General  Assembly  would  hold  its 
next  session  at  Concord  they  should  be  as  well 
accommodated  as  at  Exeter  and  for  half  the 
money.  Thereupon  the  assembly  adjourned  to 
Concord." 

When  Colonel  Walker  mentioned  this  at 
home,  the  good  folk  of  Concord  opened  their 
houses,  took  in  the  members  of  the  General  Court, 
and  must  have  been  pretty  satisfactory  hosts, 
for  forty-four  sessions  of  the  General  Court  were 
held  there  between  that  time  and  1816  when 
Concord  became  the  state  capital. 

When  the  stove  was  introduced  into  the  Con- 


404  Old  New  England  Churches 

cord  meeting  house  there  was  even  more  excite- 
ment and  resistance  than  in  other  houses  when 
this  extraordinary  epoch  in  their  history  was 
reached.  Indeed  the  opposition  was  so  tremen- 
dous that  the  stove  was  introduced  only  on  a  com- 
promise— as  a  kind  of  sop  to  pubhc  prejudice — 
something  hke  that  compromise  which  was  made 
at  Webster  in  1832 — "to  dispense  with  the  fire 
within  the  stove  the  first  vSabbath  in  each  month 
through  the  cold  season." 

The  third  meeting  house  was  in  1842,  and  then 
in  1874  came  the  fourth. 

Concord  had  vicissitudes  similar  to  those  of  the 
rest  of  New  England ;  but,  like  most  New  Hamp- 
shire towns  originally  founded  by  work-a-day 
folk  in  the  interests  of  trade,  an  exercise  of  ex- 
cellent common  sense  adjusted  its  difficulties  and 
minimised  them  before  those  of  its  neighbours. 
In  short,  New  Hampshire  folk  lived  not  by  bread 
of  the  Gospel  alone  but  went  down  to  the  sea  in 
ships,  discreetly  sold  what  they  caught,  invested 
economically  in  religion  as  in  other  things,  and 
prospered  mightily. 


CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  HANOVER,  N.  H. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  New  Hampshire 

THE  Church  of  Christ  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege" was  gathered  at  Hanover,  New 
Hampshire,  by  Eleazer  Wheelock,  founder  and 
first  president  of  Dartmouth  College,  January  23, 
1 77 1.  The  building  is  exceptional  in  being  al- 
most without  picturesque  history,  in  furnishing 
an  extraordinary  exhibition  of  ecclesiastical  diffi- 
culty, and  in  having  sent  forth  an  amazing  num- 
ber of  great  men.  It  was  literally  a  church  in  the 
wilderness,  giving  form,  together  with  the  college, 
to  the  purpose  expressed  in  the  motto  signifi- 
cantly engraved  on  the  college  seal.  Vox  clamantis 
in  deserto. 

The  twenty-seven  persons  with  whom  the  church 
was  organised  were  members  of  Dr.  Wheelock' s 
"family,"  that  is,  his  wife  and  children,  the  stud- 
ents of  the  college,  and  the  labourers  in  his  em- 
ploy. These  lived  under  his  immediate  con- 
trol in  the  two  buildings  put  up  in  the  little  clear- 
ing of  the  pine  forest  which  covered  the  college 

plain.    There  was  a  log  "  hutt "  and  a  large  rude 

407 


4o8  Old  New  England  Churches 

structure  for  the  students  and  labourers.  The 
nearest  neighbour  could  only  be  found  at  the  end 
of  a  three-mile  ride  "through  one  continuous  and 
dreary  wood." 

In  no  other  instance  do  we  find  a  simultaneous 
beginning  of  educational  and 4  ecclesiastical  in- 
terests. Hanoyer  church  we  may  regard  as  the 
religious  side  of  the  college,  and  the  college  Presi- 
dent was  its  minister  till  his  death  in  April,  1779. 
The  college  continued  to  furnish  preachers  to  the 
church  for  many  years. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case  it  was  from  the 
outset  without  ecclesiastical  affiliations,  but  as 
time  passed,  and  churches  were  organised  in  the 
neighbouring  towns,  Hanover  church  adopted  the 
Presbyterian  form  of  government  and  united  with 
others  to  form  the  "Grafton  Presbyter."  Among 
the  early  elders  was  Bezaleel  Woodward,  a  trustee 
and  professor  in  the  college,  prominent  in  public 
affairs,  educational  and  political  as  well  as  re- 
ligious. He  was  leader  in  the  movement  to  es- 
tablish the  state  of  New  Connecticut,  which  it 
was  hoped  would  be  made  from  the  portions  of 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  on  either  side  of 
the  Connecticut  River.  The  church  flourished 
greatly    under    its    early    pastors,     though    for 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  N.  H.  409 

many  years  it  had  no  house  of  its  own,  and 
had  to  depend  on  the  hospitaUty  of  the  college. 
The  services  were  held  in  the  college  chapel, 
used  also  for  the  commencement  exercises  of 
the  college.  For  the  latter  it  was  too  small, 
and  as  the  college  could  not  afford  to  erect  a 
larger  building,  a  movement  was  started  in  1775 
by  the  residents  of  the  village  to  build  a  "meeting 
house,"  large  enough  for  the  ordinary  Sabbath 
services  and  for  the  greater  gatherings  at  the 
college  commencements.  In  that  year  there  was 
built  a  meeting  house  of  the  ordinary  New  En- 
gland pattern  of  that  time,  relieved  only  by  a 
"belcony "  at  one  end,  which  rose  in  a  spire,  one 
hundred  feet  in  height,  surmounted  by  two  gilt 
balls.  Within  could  be  found  the  high  pulpit, 
overhung  by  a  sounding  board.  There  were  gal- 
leries around  three  sides,  of  which  the  front  seats 
in  part  were  reserved  for  "music"  and  the  whole 
interior  was  painted  white  with  a  slight  tint  of 
blue.  The  building  was  guiltless  of  any  means 
of  heating,  and  in  winter  the  breath  of  the  wor- 
shippers often  formed  a  cloud  in  front  of  the  pulpit, 
so  that  fervency  of  devotion  was  the  only  source 
of  warmth.  The  house  was  dedicated  in  Decem- 
ber  and   immediately   occupied,    the   proprietors 


4IO  Old  New  England  Churches 

taking  the  pews  on  the  floor  and  the  students 
being  assigned  to  the  west  gallery.  The  col- 
legiate character  of  the  congregation  was  thus 
preserved.  A  dispute  arose  not  long  after  the 
erection  of  the  building  about  its  use  by  the  col- 
lege, and  consequently  the  president  withdrew 
his  students  to  the  chapel.  They  soon  returned, 
and  since  then  the  building  has  been  used  con- 
tinuously as  the  place  of  worship  for  the  college 
as  well  as  for  the  public  exercises  of  commence- 
ment and  other  academic  exhibitions. 

In  the  course  of  the  century  the  building  has 
several  times  undergone  repair  and  enlargement. 
The  first  spire  became  unsafe,  and  was  replaced 
in  1838  by  a  cupola  which  still  stands.  The 
change  in  sacred  music,  first  marked  by  the  pass- 
ing of  the  fugue,  before  the  period  of  choral  music, 
led  to  the  substitution  of  the  organ  for  the  violin, 
bass  viol,  and  trombone.  In  1889  Mr.  Stanford 
White  finally  turned  this  church  into  a  building 
whose  dignity  of  proportion,  chaste  ornamenta- 
tion, and  harmonious  colouring  make  it  one  of  the 
finest  representatives  of  colonial  architecture  in 
New  England.  Its  combination  of  plain  exterior 
and  simple  artistic  interior  have  given  it  the 
fitting  title,  the  "New  England  Cathedral."     Mr. 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  N.  H.  411 

Hiram  Hitchcock's  generosity  made  this  excellent 
result  possible. 

There  the  successive  generations  of  Dartmouth 
students  have  received  the  instruction  and  in- 
fluence connected  with  the  services  of  the  church. 
Attendance  upon  the  Sabbath  services  was  in  the 
beginning  compulsory,  and  for  two-thirds  of  a 
century  the  students  came  together  for  worship 
twice  each  Sunday.  Afterward  for  twenty-five 
years  they  had  to  attend  but  one  service,  and  com- 
pulsory attendance  was  finally  given  up.  The 
building  is  still  the  home  of  the  college  churchy 
but  it  invites,  does  not  compel,  the  presence  of  the 
students,  and  the  congregation  has  not  shrunk 
in  consequence. 

Among  those  who  have  been  not  merely  wor- 
shippers within  the  walls  of  the  college  church 
but  members  of  the  organisation,  are  many  whose 
names  have  been  prominent  in  educational  and 
religious  leadership.  A  large  company  of  mis- 
sionaries went  out  from  the  church  headed  by 
Mason  Goodell,  who  translated  the  Bible  into 
Armeno-Turkish,  and  Daniel  Temple  of  the  same 
college  class,  an  author  and  publisher  of  Christian 
literature  in  the  Orient.  Divinity  and  education 
are  represented  by  such  men  as  Francis  Brown, 


412  Old  New  England  Churches 

President  of  Dartmouth  during  its  great  contro- 
versy with  the  state,  Zephaniah  Swift  Moore, 
President  of  both  WilUams  and  Amherst  Colleges, 
John  Torrey,  John  Wheeler,  and  James  Marsh,  all 
Presidents  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  Charles 
A.  Aiken,  President  of  Union  College,  and  a  host 
of  others  prominent  as  presidents,  professors,  and 
educators.  Among  the  living  it  will  be  enough 
to  mention  Francis  Brown,  grandson  of  the  one 
above  mentioned,  biblical  scholar  and  professor 
in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  and  Francis  E. 
Clark,  founder  of  the  Christian  Endeavour  Society. 
At  the  college  anniversaries  held  in  the  building, 
many  men  of  promise  and  of  note  have  been  pres- 
ent. In  1 80 1  Daniel  Webster  delivered  here  his 
graduation  speech,  and  his  subject  was  not  the 
literary  or  forensic  theme  expected:  he  spoke  of 
the  discoveries  of  Lavoisier  in  chemistry.  At 
that  time  this  was  news,  not  history.  Here  also 
Rufus  Choate  spoke  at  his  graduation  in  1820; 
and  Salmon  P.  Chase  at  his  graduation  discussed 
"Literary  Curiosity."  At  other  times  large  audi- 
ences have  listened  to  Edward  Everett,  to  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  to  William  M.  Evarts  com- 
memorating Chief  Justice  Chase,  to  Rufus  Choate, 
in  his  maturity,  delivering  his  eulogy  on  Daniel 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  N.  H.  413 

Webster,  to  Senator  T.  F.  Bayard  on  the  same 
theme,  and  so  late  as  1901,  at  the  centenary  of 
the  graduation  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  Congress- 
man McCall,  recalling  the  services  and  the  charac- 
ter of  the  great  statesman.  Few  buildings  out- 
side the  centre  of  population,  and  few  within  them, 
have  witnessed  so  many  gatherings  of  so  many 
notable  men. 

The  Church  of  Christ  at  Dartmouth  College  as 
a  religious  organisation  has  had  an  eventful  his- 
tory. The  Grafton  Presbytery  to  which  it  be- 
longed became  extinct  before  1800  by  the  gradual 
withdrawal  of  its  members  to  adopt  the  Congre- 
gational form.  The  church  at  Hanover,  however, 
made  no  change,  so  that  it  was  for  several  years 
the  sole  remnant  of  Presbyterianism.  This 
steadfastness  was  not  so  much  the  result  of  a  set 
purpose  on  the  part  of  its  members, — ^for  the 
change  of  polity  by  its  neighbours  was  not  without 
its  influence, — as  of  the  relations  of  the  church  to 
the  College,  whose  President,  John  Wheelock,  son 
of  the  founder,  held  to  the  Presbyterian  form.  The 
position  of  the  College  determined  that  of  the 
church.  A  professor  in  the  one  being  the  pastor 
of  the  other,  his  college  duties  took  precedence  of 
his   church   relations,    and   the   members   of   the 


414  Old  New  England  Churches 

church  resident  in  the  village,  though  in  the  major- 
ity, occupied  a  secondary  position.  They  were 
not  sufficient  in  numbers  or  in  resources  to  organise 
a  separate  church,  and  readily  accepted  what 
came  through  their  association  with  the  College. 
The  College  elected  a  professor  of  divinity  to 
preach  to  the  students,  and  the  church  could  only 
accept  the  choice,  with  the  implied  control  of  its  af- 
fairs. This  relation  continued  without  much  fric- 
tion until  1804,  when  Rosw^ell  Shurtleff  was  elected 
Professor'  of  Divinity,  with  the  expectation  that 
he  would  become  pastor  of  the  church  in  place  of 
Professor  Smith,  who  had  for  some  time  wished 
to  withdraw.  Mr.  Shurtleff  was  acceptable  to 
the  students  and  to  the  members  of  the  church, 
but  President  Wheelock,  for  personal  reasons,  de- 
sired to  have  him  only  as  colleague  to  Professor 
Smith,  whom  he  wished  to  retain  as  pastor.  Out 
of  this  grew  a  bitter  and  protracted  controversy, 
resulting  in  a  division  of  the  church  and 
indirectly  in  the  famous  controversy  between 
the  State  of  New  Hampshire  and  Dartmouth 
College. 

In  the  early  days  of  this  church  many  persons 
joined  it  who  lived  across  the  Connecticut  in  the 
adjoining  towns  of  Norwich  and  Hartford,  Ver- 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover ,  N.  H.         415 

mont.  On  the  formation  of  a  church  in  Norwich 
the  members  resident  in  Hanover  transferred 
their  connection  to  it,  but  those  in  Hartford  still 
retained  their  connection  at  Hanover  though 
they  had  withdrawn  from  all  participation  in 
the  affairs  of  the  church  and  from  attendance 
upon  the  services.  They  went  so  far  as  to  build 
themselves  a  separate  house  of  worship,  and,  with- 
out reference  to  the  Hanover  members,  issued  a 
call  to  a  minister.  President  Wheelock  who 
had  great  influence  with  them,  owing  to  services 
he  had  rendered,  persuaded  them  to  assert  their 
right  to  vote  at  Hanover,  and  a  meeting  was  called 
to  consider  Mr.  Shurtleff's  relation  to  the  church. 
By  a  bare  majority  they  voted  to  ask  him  to  be 
colleague  with  Prof.  Smith  and  not  sole  pastor. 
This  proposition  was  utterly  distasteful  to  the 
Hanover  members,  except  three  of  four,  and  they 
resolutely  determined  not  to  allow  a  situation  to 
be  thrust  upon  them  by  those  who  had  no  interest 
in  it.  Long  negotiations  followed  between  the 
parties,  and  when  no  agreement  could  be  reached 
the  Hanover  members  proposed  the  calling  of  a 
general  council  for  advice.  This  was  refused  by 
the  other  side  and  after  all  means  had  been  tried 
without  success  the  Hanover  members  called  an 


41 6  Old  New  England  Churches 

ex  parte  council,  before  which  they  laid  their  case, 
the  other  side  also  appearing.  As  a  result  they 
were  organised  into  a  new  church  on  July  2,  1805, 
under  the  title  of  "The  Congregational  Church 
at  Dartmouth  College,"  while  the  Hartford  mem- 
bers still  kept  the  title  of  "Church  of  Christ  at 
Dartmouth  College,"  though  they  lived,  with 
few  exceptions,  in  another  town  and  state  and  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  college. 

This  outcome  was  so  unsatisfactory  that  before 
a  year  was  out  the  new  church  again  proposed 
a  council  to  see  if  some  means  of  union  could  be 
devised.  After  much  discussion  a  council  was 
agreed  on  and  it  met  in  1806.  It  recommended  a 
plan  of  union  for  the  two  churches,  retaining  the 
Presb3rterian  form,  which  was  accepted  by  both, 
but  the  old  church  modified  its  form  of  accep- 
tance so  as  to  make  it  ineffective,  and  in  fact 
never  followed  its  directions.  The  new  church 
vainly  attempted  to  live  up  to  them  and  after 
four  years,  acting  on  the  advice  of  the  Orange 
Association,  it  resumed  its  independent  state  under 
the  Congregational  form,  which  it  has  retained  to 
the  present  day.  The  old  church,  which  also 
changed  to  the  Congregational  form  at  a  later  day, 
became   extinct    in    1844,   leaving   the  Hanover 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  N.  H.         417 

offshoot  as  the  representative  of  the  original 
church. 

But  the  quarrel  in  the  church  passed  to  a  wider 
sphere,  for  President  Wheelock  attempted  to 
make  the  Trustees  of  the  College  a  party  to  it» 
and,  failing  in  this,  became  so  embittered  that  he 
appealed  to  the  state  legislature,  making  charges 
of  malfeasance  against  the  Trustees.  The  acts 
of  the  legislature  which  resulted  from  his  appeal 
changed  the  charter  of  the  College  and  led  to  the 
famous  Dartmouth  College  case,  which,  carried 
through  the  state  courts  with  the  aid  of  Jeremiah 
Smith,  Jeremiah  Mason,  and  Daniel  Webster,  was 
taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington. 
Pleaded  there  by  Joseph  Hopkinson  and  Daniel 
Webster  it  gave  the  latter  an  opportunity  for 
making  the  greatest  forensic  argument  in  the 
annals  of  the  American  Bar,  which  resulted  in  the 
decision  delivered  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
establishing  securely  the  foundation  of  eleemosy- 
nary institutions,  through  the  inviolability  of 
contracts. 

The  church  continued  under  the  care  of  Pro- 
fessor Shurtleff  till  1828,  and  since  that  time  it 
has  been  fortunate  in  the  permanency  of  its  pas- 
torates.    For  several  years  there  were  frequent 


4i8  Old  New  England  Churches 

changes,  but  in  1841  Rev.  John  Richards,  D.  D., 
came  to  its  pulpit,  which  he  occupied  eighteen 
years  till  his  death  in  1861  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  Rev.  S.  P.  Leeds,  D.  D.,  who  remained  as 
pastor  of  the  church  for  forty  years,  a  longer  period 
of  service  in  a  college  pulpit  than  that  of  any  other 
man  who  has  held  such  a  position  in  New  England. 
For  years  there  was  in  connection  with  the  pas- 
torate a  board  of  college  preachers,  but  this  was 
given  up  when  compulsory  attendance  by  the  stu- 
dents was  abandoned;  and  the  church  is  now 
under  the  pastoral  care  of  Rev.  A.  W.  Vernon. 
In  1905,  on  the  completion  of  a  century  since  its 
organisation  as  an  offshoot  of  the  original  church, 
it  adopted  the  name  chosen  at  the  beginning,  and 
it  is  again  the  "Church  of  Christ  at  Dartmouth 
College." 

It  has  always  been  known  as  the  "College 
Church,"  but  the  early  connection  by  which  the 
professor  of  divinity  was  the  pastor  of  the  church 
came  to  an  end  on  the  retirement  of  Professor  Shurt- 
leff.  By  that  time  the  church  felt  strong  enough 
to  support  its  own  minister,  though  not  without 
financial  help  from  the  college,  which  has  always 
been  generously  given,  and  in  1831  it  settled  by 
its  own  choice  on  the  Rev.  Robert  Page.     Since  his 


Church  of  Christ,  Hanover,  N.  H.  419 

time  the  pastors  of  the  church  have  had  no  official 
relation  to  the  college  till  in  1904  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Vernon  was  elected  Professor  of  Biblical  Liter- 
ature at  the  same  time  that  he  was  elected  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  church,  and  with  the  help  of  an 
assistant  pastor,  he  performs  the  duties  of  both 
offices. 

Besides  the  ordinary  growth  of  the  church 
many  revivals  have  marked  its  history.  In  181 5 
and  182 1  there  were* notable  movements  by  which 
forty  or  more  members  were  added  to  the  church 
each  year.  Again  in  1858,  1875,  1879  ^^^  1885 
there  were  many  additions.  The  present  mem- 
bership is  242,  and  the  total  number  borne  on  the 
roll  since  organisation  is  899. 


CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  BENNINGTON, 

VT. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vermont 

THE  ecclesiastical  history  of  Vermont  is 
necessarily  of  a  more  robust  sort  than 
that  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  New  England. 
The  Green  Mountain  State  had  its  beginnings 
during  political  dissensions  and  coming  war,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  time  could  not  have  resulted  in 
anything  more  forceful  and  virile  than  the  con- 
ditions— even  ecclesiastical  conditions — which 
we  find.  The  church  history  of  Bennington 
given  here  will  necessarily  be  largely  anecdotal, 
and  a  good  deal  of  the  anecdote  may  seem  rather 
strenuous;  but  the  men  of  Vermont  were  stren- 
uous, and  the  reminiscences  which  are  directly 
linked  with  the  church  seem  precisely  to  reflect 
the  men  and  the  hour. 

When  a  handful  of  imperfectly  armed  men  can 
walk  up  to  a  fort  full  of  properly  equipped  if  im- 
properly drunken  soldiers  and  capture  the  outfit 
with  recourse  to  nothing  mightier  than  a  dozen 
judiciously   assembled   words   from   the   English 

language  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  those  men 

423 


424  Old  New  England  Churches 

stand  first  in  importance  at  roll  call.  Whether 
the  British  did  surrender  "in  the  name  of  the  Great 
Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress"  or  whether 
these  words  are  as  apocryphal  as  William  Tell,  it 
little  matters.  The  legendary  story  of  that  sur- 
render may  be  bad  fact  but  if  so,  then  it  is  the 
finest  piece  of  fiction  in  the  world,  and  perfectly 
presents  the  spirit  of  the  surrender.  Benning- 
ton's secular  history  began  in  some  such  way  as 
that. 

Bennington's  ecclesiastical  history  stood  first  in 
the  territory  that  was  called  Vermont.  Secular 
affairs  at  the  crisis-chapter  of  Bennington  history 
— that  tim  when  Ethan  Allen  marched  across  the 
page — were  made  up  of  things  which  had  become 
to  the  Green  Mountain  State  a  religion;  namely 
resistance,  patriotism,  and  fight!  Meeting  house 
history  in  Bennington  began  a  good  while  before 
this  Revolutionary  history,  but  as  one  reads  he 
is  inclined  to  believe  that  unconsciously  Vermont 
was  ^getting  ready  all  of  the  time.  The  moment 
does  not  find  the  man  unless  the  man  is  there 
waiting  for  the  moment.  All  the  world  waited 
but  it  was  given  to  Bennington  to  have  the  man 
in  its  midst. 

For  thirteen  years  the  township  remained  an 


Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vt.  425 

unbroken  wilderness.  From  the  beginning,  how- 
ever, the  town's  name  was  fixed:  it  bore  that 
of  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire.  Event- 
ually, the  place  was  settled  by  accident.  Cap- 
tain Samuel  Robinson  passed  that  way  after 
a  campaign  against  the  French,  got  lost,  liked 
the  country  he  found  himself  in — which  was 
afterward  to  become  Bennington — and  de- 
termined if  he  ever  found  Massachusetts  again 
he  would  return  with  enough  people  to  settle  the 
country.  He  fulfilled  his  intention,  and  Benning- 
ton first  existed  as  an  active  corporation  when  a 
proprietor's  meeting  was  held  on  February  11, 
1762.  Benjamin  Harwood  inaugurated  the  gather- 
ing of  the  first  census  by  being  bom  the  following 
January. 

At  the  first  "proprietor's  meeting"  they  chose 
Deacon  Joseph  Safford,  Esq.,  Samuel  Robinson, 
John  Fassett,  Ebenezer  Wood,  Elisha  Field,  John 
Bumam,  and  Abraham  Newton  a  committee  to 
look  out  a  place  to  set  the  new  meeting  house. 
The  men  fixed  upon  the  northeast  comer  of  the 
right  of  land  No.  27.  The  meeting  house  placed, 
all  other  improvements  radiated  therefrom — 
new  roads,  new  buildings,  and  the  like.  It  was 
voted  that  "the  road  from  the  meeting  house  to 


426  Old  New  England  Churches 

Samuel  Safford's  will  be  the  main  road,  and  shall 
be  foiir  rods  wide."  The  lands  of  Bennington 
were  taxed  to  build  the  meeting  house.  A  tax  of 
six  dollars  on  each  right  of  land  was  levied,  but 
the  sum  secured  thus  seems  not  to  have  sufficed, 
as  those  who  gave  were  summoned  to  convene 
to  see  if  they  would  not  make  a  further 
subscription.  The  house  had  no  steeple 
and  it  had  a  second  story,  or  perhaps  an  attic, 
which  served  as  a  schoolroom  for  a  good  many 
years.  There  were  square  pews  in  the  house  and 
they  bore  little  railings  on  top,  composed  of  small 
balusters  not  always  firmly  set,  and  little  fingers 
used  to  work  tentatively  at  these  rounds  of  wood, 
finding  out  which  were  loose,  thus  beguiling  the 
long,  tedious  prayer  and  sermon  hours.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  babies  played,  and  likely  the  older 
fry  amused  itself  too,  for  on  March  22,  1777,  the 
Revolutionary  War  was  suspended  long  enough 
for  Bennington  to  vote  that  "such  persons  as  do 
continue  playing  in  the  meeting  house  on  the 
Lord's-day,  or  in  the  worship  of  God,  be  com- 
plained of  to  the  committee  of  safety  of  the  town, 
who  are  hereby  authorised  to  fine  them  discretion- 
ally." 
The  meeting   house   served  for  town-house  as 


Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vt.  427 

well,  and  it  was  in  this  first  house  that  the  people 
gave  thanks  for  their  success  at  Ticonderoga — 
Ethan  Allen  coming  home  to  take  his  part  in  the 
meeting.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Dewey,  a  few  months 
later,  preached  war  on  the  Sunday  before  the 
battle  of  Bennington,  and  afterward  the  Hessians 
and  other  prisoners  were  housed  in  the  meeting 
house  for  safe  keeping.  There  was  a  good  deal 
that  was  humourous  in  a  grim  way  in  that  excit- 
ing time.  When  these  captives  of  the  battle  were 
marching  sadly  toward  the  church  they  had  to 
pass  the  Catamount  Tavern — a  specimen  of  fine 
truculent  nomenclature — and  as  they  passed  the 
landlord  came  out.  With  much  impressiveness  he 
invited  the  prisoners  in  to  dinner  as  it  was  quite 
ready,  having  been  haughtily  ordered  the  day 
before  by  the  British  officers  who  expected  to 
arrive  after  the  battle,  under  somewhat  different 
auspices. 

The  first  legislature  of  Vermont  assembled  in 
the  first  meeting  house,  as  did  many  subsequent 
legislatures. 

It  was  probably  to  that  first  Sunday  after  Ticon- 
deroga that  the  legend  of  Allen's  promptitude  in 
claiming  his  own,  belongs.  Town  history  has  it 
that  a  long  Thanksgiving  prayer  in  which  the 


428  Old  New  England  Churches 

preacher  was  giving  God  all  the  glory  of  the 
Ticonderoga  victory,  was  interrupted  by  Allen 
shouting  out,  "Parson  Dewey,  Parson  Dewey, 
Parson  Dewey! "and  on  the  third  count  Dewey 
was  compelled  to  pause  and  open  his  eyes.  Then 
said  Allen,  "Please  mention  to  the  Lord  about 
my  being  there!" 

A  famous  murder  trial  was  held  in  this  first 
meeting  house  since  it  was  also  the  court  house; 
and  Pierrepoint  Edwards  came  from  New  Haven 
to  serve  successfully  for  the  defence. 

There  were  certain  interesting  conditions  relat- 
ing to  Bennington  settlement  which  reflect  ways, 
and  means.  For  instance  it  was  determined 
by  the  original  settler,  Captain  Robinson,  that 
those  who  were  Congregationalists  should  be  per- 
mitted to  live  on  the  Hill,  but  those  of  any  other 
denomination  must  buy  their  land  and  settle  in 
some  other  part  of  the  township.  Hence  Cap- 
tain Robinson's  formula,  "  To  what  denomination 
do  you  belong,  my  friend?"  When  this  question 
was  one  day  launched  at  a  man  who  came  to  buy 

some  land,  he  inquired,  "  What  in  h has  that 

to  do  with  you?" — ^The  man  didn't  acquire  the 
"Hill"  property! 

This  Church  of  Christ   in   Bennington  which 


Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vt.         429 

existed  in  1762  was  the  restdt  of  a  coalition  be- 
tween the  Bennington  and  Westfield  churches, 
the  pastor  of  the  latter  becoming  the  pastor  of 
the  united  people.  Each  chiu'ch  joined  the  other 
"  with  uplifted  hands  before  God,"  and  this  marked 
a  new  growth  in  the  land.  The  covenant  of  the 
church  seems  to  have  met  with  vicissitudes. 
It  certainly  was  lost,  and  was  found  among 
some  papers  that  were  thrown  into  the  street. 
It  was  mutilated  and  about  one-third  of  the  sig- 
natures were  on  the  missing  portion. 

Perhaps  the  most  profound  anxiety  on  the  part 
of  that  early  church  was  how  to  pay  the  minister* 
He  was  to  receive  fifty  pounds  during  the  first 
year.  Not  only  the  members  of  the  church  but 
the  whole  congregation  contributed  to  this,  and 
collectors  were  chosen  to  get  together  the  money; 
but  to  collect  the  preacher's  salary  was  a  matter 
of  high  finance,  even  of  statesmanship,  in  those 
days.  At  one  time  it  was  the  duty  of  the  colonial 
preacher  to  collect  his  own  salary,  and  as  it  was 
dribbled  out  to  him  by  the  people  it  was  necessary 
for  him  to  go  visiting  each  week  in  order  to  exist 
at  all.  This  made  him  naturally  detested,  and 
he  might  well  have  been  called  the  town  beggar. 
Even  after  the  matter  of  salary  was  negotiated 


430  Old  New  England  Churches 

by  assessment,  he  was  oftener  without  it  than 
not.  In  one  New  England  parish  the  preacher's 
salary  being  forever  in  arrears,  he  was  compelled 
at  last  to  bring  suit  against  -the  town.  When  the 
case  was  up  for  consideration  the  parish  spokes- 
man asked,  "Well,  what  do  you  want  now?  If 
we  haven't  paid  up,  we  gave  you  the  improve- 
ment of  the  island  and  about  thirty  acres  of  land 
besides.  Isn't  that  enough  without  asking  for 
your  salary?" 

"Yes,"  answered  the  preacher,  "you  did  give 
me  the  island.  I  have  mowed  it  and  I  don't 
want  a  better  fence  around  my  cornfield  than  one 
winrow  of  the  fodder  it  cuts.  If  you  should  mow 
that  island  you  speak  of  with  a  razor  and  rake  it 
with  a  comb,  you  wouldn't  get  enough  from  it  to 
winter  a  grasshopper." 

The  preacher  got  nothing  after  thirty-six  years' 
of  work  for  the  parish,  and  at  last  his  persistence 
so  disturbed  these  godly  folk  that  it  was  "voted 
thet  ther  meting  hous  shuld  be  shot  up  so  that 
no  parson  shuld  open  the  same  so  that  Mr.  John 
Robrson  of  Duxborrough  may  not  get  into  the 
meting  hous  to  preach  annay  more  without  orders 
from  the  towne."  To  survive  such  hardships 
required  the  spirit  of  a  Fenelon  who  asked  "little 


Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vt.         431 

from  men,"  tried  to  "render  them  much  and  ex- 
pect nothing  in  return." 

This  matter  of  preacher's  salary  was  hke  to 
have  been  Bennington's  Waterloo,  but  dpubtless 
its  own  battle  did  much  to  heal  ecclesiastical 
breaches:  if  the  colonists  disagreed  under  many 
creeds  yet  they  all  fought  under  one  flag.  These 
disagreements  in  the  church  interrupted  and 
indefinitely  postponed  infant  baptism.  They  al- 
together disorganised  the  town  and  congregation, 
and  it  was  not  until  after  1780  when  the  preacher's 
salary  was  fixed,  that  the  many  dissensions  in  the 
church  ceased.  Other  troubles  followed.  One 
of  their  ministers  Mr.  Avery,  brought  a  slave  into 
the  town  and  insisted  upon  his  right  to  hold  her. 
There  was  small  toleration  of  slavery  in  Vermont, 
and  Bennington  did  not  agree  with  its  pastor. 
One  member  of  the  church  had  to  be  placed  under 
discipline  "  for  withdrawing  himself  from  its  com- 
munion upon  its  affirming  that  it  would  commune 
with  a  brother  who  might  have  a  slave."  In  all 
probability  this  man's  action  represented  the 
majority  of  sentiment  in  Vermont,  but  it  was  not 
church  policy  to  permit  so  striking  a  resistance 
on  the  part  of  its  people,  and  the  disciplinary 
measure  of  excommunication  followed.     We  have 


432  Old  New  England  Churches 

a  fail  concensus  of  Vermont  opinion  in  the    fol- 
lowing document: 

"Headquarters  Paulet,  Nov,,  28,  1779.  To 
whom  it  may  concern,  know  thee:  whereas, 
Dinah  Mattis,  a  negro  woman,  with  Nancy,  her 
child  of  two  months  old,  was  taken  prisoner  on 
Lake  Champlain  with  the  British  troops  some- 
where near  Colonel  Gilliner's  garden,  the  twelfth 
day  of  inst.  November,  by  a  scout  under  my  com- 
mand, and,  according  to  a  resolve  passed  by  the 
Honorable  Continental  Congress,  that  all  prizes 
belong  to  the  captivators  thereof,  therefore  she  and 
her  child  became  the  just  property  of  the  capti- 
vators thereof,  I  being  comprehentious  that  it  is 
not  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  keep  slaves ;  there- 
fore obtaining  leave  of  the  detachment  under  my 
command  to  give  her  and  her  child  their  freedom; 
I  do  therefore  give  the  said  Dinah  Mattis,  and  her 
child,  their  freedom  to  pass  and  repass  anywhere 
through  the  United  States  of  America,  with  her 
behaving  as  becometh,  and  to  trade  and  traffic 
for  herself  and  her  child  as  though  she  were  free 
bom,  without  being  molested  by  any  person  or 
persons.  In  witness  whereunto  I  have  set  my 
hand  and  subscribed  my  name. 

'"(Signed)'  Ebenezer  Allen. 

"Captain   in   Herrick's   Regiment   of   Green 
Mountain  Boys." 

Perhaps  in  no  region  do  we  find  such  emphatic 
individual  characteristics  as  we  do  in  Vermont. 
These  were  necessarily  the  cause  of  a  good  deal 


Church  of  Christ,  Bennington,  Vt.  433 

of  disagreement  and  irritation  two  hundred  years 
before  the  comers  were  rounded  off,  but  under- 
neath that  aggressive  individuaHsm  Hved  the 
hardy  sentiment  which  conceded  to  each  man  his 
right  to  think  and  to  act  altogether  as  he  pleased 
if  he  did  not  interfere  with  any  one  else's  to  do 
the  same.  We  seem  to  have  at  this  time  in 
Vermont  a  nearer  approach  to  Mill's  notion  of 
government  than  in  any  other  place  in  New 
England:  law,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  every- 
body the  greatest  possible  liberty,  and  protect- 
ing individual  liberty  first  of  all! 

When  the  government  chose  Bennington  as  a 
depot  for  public  stores,  it  chose  discreetly,  as  was 
proved  when  Burgoyne  came  to  rob   it. 

In  time  the  influence  of  Whitefield  was  felt  in 
Bennington,  and  what  was  considered  to  be  a 
spiritual  regeneration  began  in  the  old  meeting- 
house, but  that  proving  inadequate  to  hold 
the  people,  a  three  days'  meeting  was  held  in  the 
open  air.  Of  the  many  anecdotes  recorded,  there 
is  certainly  one,  prophetic  in  spirit  of  the  lineal 
Bennington  hero  who  made  that  anecdote  of 
Manila  possible  in  1898.  When  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Dewey  began  life  he  learned  the  trade  of  carpenter, 
and  when  he  took    to  preaching,  he  found  his 


434  Old  New  England  Churches 

experience  useful.  When  the  first  meeting  house 
was  being  raised  there  was  a  lack  of  men  at  the 
work.  Mr.  Dewey  who  was  standing  near — 
possibly  consecrating  the  deed  with  prayer — 
came  forward  and  said  to  the  builder,  **  'Do  you 
take  a  pole  and  help  lift  with  the  men,  and  I  will 
give  the  word  of  command.'  The  builder  com- 
plied. At  that  instant  two  men  came  riding  up 
on  horseback  from  the  south.  They  dismounted 
and  also  grasped  the  poles.  Mr.  Dewey  gave  the 
word  of  command  and  the  side  of  the  frame  went 
up  forthwith  to  its  perpendicular  position,  was 
fastened,  and  the  raising  of  th3  building  was  com- 
pleted without  further  delay.  He  also  builded  or 
superintended  the  building  of  the  house  in  which 
he  resided." — ^We  find  the  Deweys  in  command 
even  back  there  in  seventeen-something. 

There  are  enough  humourous  anecdotes  loose  in 
Vermont,  to  lighten  the  gravity  even  of  the  Puri- 
tan faith. 


FIRST  CHURCH,  NEWBURY,  VT. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

First  Church,  Newbury,  Vermont 

IN  NEWBURY  the  tithing  men  were  a  sort 
of  local  police.  The  name  is  of  Anglo-Saxon 
origin,  *  *  tithing ' '  meaning  parish.  In  New  England 
the  duty  was  by  no  means  confined  to  eccle- 
siastical supervision. 

Tithing  men  in  Newbury  were  recognised 
more  nearly  according  to  their  original  func- 
tion in  Old  England,  and  instead  of  being 
chosen  by  the  selectmen,  as  they  were  in 
Massachusetts  and  elsewhere,  their  office  came 
by  town  appointment.  There  must  have 
been  a  period  of  degeneracy  among  the  people  of 
this  region,  for  upon  the  occasion  of  electing  a 
preacher  to  the  office  of  hog  constable,  known  as 
"hog-reeve,"  he  thanked  his  fellow- townsmen 
for  the  honour,  and  declared  the  nomination  to 
be  appropriate;  "for  I  came  among  you  as  a  shep- 
herd among  his  flock,  but  if  you  have  so  far  de- 
generated as  to  become  a  herd  of  swine,  it  is  fitting 
that  I  shotild  be  hog  constable."  The  Reverend 
Wit  was  let  off.    Concerning  this  office  there  is  an 

437 


438  Old  New  England  Churches 

anecdote  related  of  one  of  Newbury's  own  preachers, 
Dr.  Calvin  Jewett.  He  was  moderator  of  the 
town  meeting,  and  when  the  choice  of  a  hog 
constable  came  under  consideration,  a  good  many 
people  who  seemed  about  to  be  offered  the  nomi- 
nation, were  prepared  to  decline  it.  The  public- 
spirited  preacher  lectured  the  meeting  upon  its 
lack  of  conscientiousness,  pointing  out  that  the 
office  was  one  of  much  importance,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  it  should  be  filled,  and  it  was  an  honour 
no  good  citizen  could  afford  to  forego.  Imme- 
diately the  good  Doctor  was  elected  hog  con- 
stable. He  regarded  it  more  or  less  as  a  joke  and 
went  home,  but  the  jest  took  on  tragic  proportions 
when  he  was  awakened  at  midnight  by  some  of 
his  neighbours  who  counselled  him  that  since  the 
office  was  so  important,  it  was  certainly  neces- 
sary that  there  be  no  vacancy,  and  that  they  had 
brought  a  justice  of  the  peace  with  them  to  swear 
the  preacher  in. 

The  history  of  that  first  meeting  house  in  New- 
bury is  clouded,  if  not  inchoate.  We  know  that 
it  was  the  orthodox  log  cabin  and  28  by  25  feet 
in  dimension.  The  people  of  Newbury  tired  of 
it  and  wanted  "to  see  where  the  town  will  agree 
to  meet  on  the  Sabbath  the  spring  and  summer 


Courtesy  of  W.  C.  Prentiss,  Newbury,  Vt. 
FIRST  CHURCH,  NEWBURY,  VERMONT 

The  church  whose  Thanksgiving  Day  was  delayed  because  there  was  no  molasses  in  the  parish 


'It  t 

*  t     < 

c      «c 


First  Church,  Newbury,  Vt.  439 

ensuing,"  from  which  we  infer  that  they  did  not 
intend  to  meet  in  the  old  house.  But  in  1771  the 
town  had  done  nothing  and  the  church-going  folk 
again  asked  "if  it  will  do  anything  to  the  meet- 
ing house."  There  is  some  record  that  during  the 
year  there  was  the  frame  of  a  meeting  house  put 
up  on  the  Little  Plain,  but  the  geographical  sit- 
uation did  not  please  the  people,  and  it  was  taken 
down  to  be  put  again  on  the  Ox-bow.  In  1773 
there  was  a  town  vote  "  to  finish  the  meeting  house 
that  is  now  raised,  the  owners  giving  in  what  is 
done, "  and  "  that  the  notes  that  were  given  to 
build  a  meeting  house  be  given  up.  Captain  Hazen 
giving  him  a  bond  which  Haverhill  took  of  New- 
bury for  building  the  same."  There  is  no  account 
of  any  special  action  being  taken  in  the  matter. 
A  term  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  met  at 
Robert  Johnston's  Inn  and  on  the  third  day  there 
was  an  adjournment  to  inspect  "the  building 
intended  for  a  court  house  and  jail  in  this  town- 
ship." The  Court  was  pleased,  apparently,  and 
appropriated  more  money  to  finish  the  building, 
directing  that  the  workmen  were  "  not  to  be  over 
nice  in  doing  it."  In  this  we  have  meeting  house 
history,  because  the  court  house  and  the  meeting 
house  were  the  same,  judging  by  later  records. 


440  Old  New  England  Churches 

The  structure  was  called  indifferently  the  state 
house,  the  court  house,  and  the  meeting  house. 
There  was  a  meeting  house  developed  by  piety 
alone  somewhere  about  1776.  At  that  date  it 
had  been  some  time  in  building  and  was  probably 
unfinished,  for  the  town  voted  "  to  build  pews  and 
seats  in  the  meeting  house  on  the  vacant  ground." 
This  building  may  also  have  been  used  as  town 
house,  but  it  is  difficult  to  get  details.  At  any  rate 
it  was  used  for  worship  for  about  fifteen  years,  by 
which  time  the  structure  called  the  old  meeting 
house  was  built.  This  was  in  1788,  and  in 
looking  over  records  one  grows  optimistic 
and  is  about  to  believe  that  a  Newbtiry  meeting 
house  pure  and  simple  is  reached,  till  one  finds 
that  the  legislature  met  here  for  the  October 
session,  1787. 

This  meeting  house  was  not  without  its  anec- 
dotes, indeed  the  whole  meeting  house  history  of 
Newbury  seems  largely  anecdotal.  The  house 
itself  was  a  sort  of  anecdote.  Certainly  it  was 
more  of  a  happen-stance  than  a  circumstance.  In 
that  early  house  the  men  were  seated  on  one  side, 
the  women  on  the  other.  One  Sunday  when  Mr. 
Powers  was  preaching  he  became  greatly  disturbed 
by  much  whispering  in  the  house,  and  he  ceased  his 


First  Church,  Newbury,  Vt.  441 

sermon  to  rebuke  the  brethren  for  this  unseemliness. 
A  deacon  arose  and  told  the  Reverend  Mr.  Powers 
that  the  men  were  not  whispering,  that  the  dis- 
turbance came  from  the  women's  side,  where- 
upon Mr.  Powers  perceiving  the  impotence  of 
censure  remarked  "  then  it  is  of  no  use  for  me  to 
say  anything." 

About  1798,  when  the  inhabitants  became 
desperate,  we  find  included  in  the  "warnings" 
for  the  town  meeting  in  March  the  following:  "to 
see  if  the  town  will  repair  the  old  meeting  house, 
so  that  it  may  be  of  some  advantage  to  the  in- 
habitants and  take  some  method  to  do  the  same." 
An  agent  was  appointed  to  look  after  this  matter, 
but  he  could  not  have  been  very  happy  over  the 
appointment  because  he  was  sharply  limited  to 
the  expenditure  of  fifteen  dollars.  Probably  he 
gave  it  up  for  we  read  that  nothing  happened, 
and  after  a  time  the  house  was  pulled  down. 

That  Vermonters  were  gastronomes  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  even  their  church  history  bears 
witness:  the  pumpkin  pie  delayed  the  celebration 
of  Thanksgiving  a  great  many  weeks  on  one  oc- 
casion. The  Thanksgiving  proclamation  had  not 
reached  Newbury  until  after  the  day  appointed 
for  it,  but  the  people  determined  to  celebrate.     In 


442  Old  New  England  Churches 

taking  stock  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  no 
molasses  in  town,  whereupon  a  local  proclamation 
was  issued  for  the  postponement  of  Thanksgiving 
until  the  arrival  of  the  molasses  which  was  ex- 
pected from  Charlestown.  All  Newbury  was  on 
the  qui  vive.  Days  came  and  went  but  not  the 
molasses  consignment.  What  was  to  be  done? 
Give  thanks  without  pumpkin  pie?  Never! 
Without  pumpkin  pie  why  Thanksgiving?  As 
weeks  passed  melancholy  settled  upon  Newbury, 
but  in  course  of  time  they  gave  thanks.  We  do 
not  know  what  they  did  when  the  molasses 
finally  arrived.  Perhaps  they  gave  thanks  the 
second  time. 

People  came  from  long  distances  and  many 
villages,  to  convene  at  this  church  in  Newbury. 
Women  living  on  the  other  side  of  the  Wells 
River  took  off  their  shoes  and  stockings  and 
carried  their  children  across  the  ford  on  their 
backs.  This  was  hardly  an  energy  inspired  by 
spiritual  necessity  but  rather  by  social  inclination. 
The  isolation  of  those  days  was  awful.  The 
social  uses  of  the  meeting  house  were  notable 
and  cherished. 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


